One month after Ukraine dam breach, villagers in Russian-controlled areas still live in destroyed homes

[July 07, 2023]  HOLA PRYSTAN, Russian-controlled Ukraine (Reuters) - Walking through what remains of his home, Leonid Garul points to the ceiling and the walls to show where the floodwaters reached last month when the massive Kakhovka dam was breached in southern Ukraine.

A former sitting room now resembles a junkyard, with couches, tables and other bits of waterlogged debris piled in heaps. The walls, completely stripped of their plaster, are now just straw and mud.

"We have been digging around in this shit already for a week, trying to save at least something," Garul, 72 and shirtless, said as he tried to pull a plank of wood from the wreckage. "I think there is practically nothing left."

One month after the dam breach sent floodwaters pouring into Hola Prystan and other small villages downstream, many streets here remain underwater, and villagers like Garul are struggling to repair completely destroyed homes with few supplies.

One of the greatest disasters of the conflict thus far, the collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on June 6 flooded hundreds of houses in both Ukrainian and Russian-controlled territory. Huge areas of agricultural land were rendered infertile, putting the global food supply further at risk. Experts warn the environmental consequences could last decades.

International legal experts assisting Ukraine concluded last month that it is "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for planting explosives at the dam. Moscow has said Ukraine blew it up on the suggestion of Western leaders.

The death toll continues to rise, reaching 53 on Thursday in Russian-controlled territory after rescuers discovered five more bodies in the flood zone, Russian state news quoted local emergency services as saying.

The United Nations said last month that Moscow had declined its offers of aid for flood victims in areas under its control. The Kremlin cited security concerns and "other nuances".

Men commute along a street after floodwaters receded following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in the town of Hola Prystan in the Kherson region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Along a central street in Hola Prystan, local residents, many of them elderly, line up to receive bottled water and a large bag of food with oils and dried goods from the Russian-installed authorities.

Many locals will have to walk through water to get home.

Streets in many residential districts still resemble brackish lakes, where stray dogs wade up to their chests and cars sit rotting in stagnant water filled with floating debris.

Andrey Domaev says the floodwaters took five days to fully retreat from his home, leaving huge piles of dirt and rendering his kitchen appliances and electronics useless. Mold is growing on what remains of his walls.

"It's been like this for two or three weeks and it has already started to rot," said Domaev, surveying his ruined possessions in a baseball cap and tank top. He still doesn't have gas or electricity.

The 42-year-old says he wants to rebuild, but lacks the necessary materials and thinks the restoration might take him months.

"If we get all the building materials, people pull themselves together, and there's some calm, at least a little, it should be faster,” Domaev said. "We are already slowly recovering, little by little."

(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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