Ukrainians face homelessness, disease as floodwaters crest from
destroyed dam
Send a link to a friend
[June 07, 2023]
By Viktoriia Lakezina and Max Hunder
KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukrainians abandoned their inundated homes
as floodwaters crested across a swathe of the south on Wednesday after
the destruction of a vast dam on the front line between Russian and
Ukrainian forces that each blamed on the other.
Residents waded through flooded streets carrying children on their
shoulders, dogs in their arms and belongings in plastic bags while
rescuers used rubber boats to search areas where the waters reached
above head height.
Ukraine said the flood would leave hundreds of thousands of people
without access to drinking water, swamp tens of thousands of hectares of
agricultural land and turn more into deserts.
"If the water rises for another metre, we will lose our house," said
Oleksandr Reva, in a village on the bank, who was moving his family's
belongings into the abandoned home of a neighbour on higher ground. A
roof of a house could be seen being swept down the Dnipro River in a
torrent.
The disaster at the Nova Kakhovka dam coincided with the apparent start
of a long-awaited counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces, seen as the next
major phase of the war. Each side accused the other of continuing to
shell across the floodzone and warned of drifting landmines unearthed by
the flooding.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jun/07/images/ads/current/rohlfs_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
Kyiv said on Wednesday its troops in the east had advanced by more than
a kilometre around the ruined city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, its
most explicit claim of progress since Russia reported the start of the
Ukrainian offensive this week. Russia said it had fought off the attack.
Residents in the flood zone in the country's south blamed the bursting
of the dam on Russian troops who controlled it from their positions on
the opposite bank.
"They hate us," Reva said. "They want to destroy a Ukrainian nation and
Ukraine itself. And they don't care by what means because nothing is
sacred for them."
Russia imposed a state of emergency in the parts of Kherson province it
controls, where many towns and villages lie in lowlands below the dam.
Residents there have told Reuters by telephone that Russian troops
patrolling the streets in waders were threatening civilians who
approached.
Ukraine expects the floodwaters will stop rising by the end of Wednesday
after reaching around five metres overnight, presidential deputy chief
Oleksiy Kuleba said.
Two thousand people had been evacuated so far from the
Ukrainian-controlled part of the flood zone, and the water level had
reached its highest level in 17 settlements with a combined population
of 16,000 people.
"Everything is submerged in water, all the furniture, the fridge, food,
all flowers, everything is floating. I do not know what to do," said
Oksana, 53, in the city of Kherson downriver from the destroyed dam.
Russia's Tass state news agency said the water level could remain
elevated in places for up to 10 days.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/060723PIX/news_a67.jpg)
Rescuers evacuate local residents from a
flooded area after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached, amid Russia's
attack on Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine June 7, 2023.
REUTERS/Vladyslav Musiienko
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2019/Sep/05/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png)
COUNTERATTACK
The vast Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine forms the front line
across the south. The huge reservoir behind the dam was one of
Ukraine's main geographic features, and its waters irrigated large
parts of one of the world's biggest grain exporting nations,
including Crimea, seized by Russia in 2014.
"The sheer magnitude of the catastrophe will only become fully
realised in the coming days," U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told
the Security Council.
Targeting dams in war is explicitly banned by the Geneva
Conventions. Neither side has presented public evidence
demonstrating who was to blame.
"The whole world will know about this Russian war crime," Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address, calling
it "an environmental bomb of mass destruction".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday Ukraine had
sabotaged the dam to distract attention from a new counteroffensive
he said was "faltering".
Washington said it was still gathering evidence about who was to
blame, but that Ukraine would have had no reason to inflict such
devastation on itself.
"Why would Ukraine do this to its own territory and people, flood
its land, force tens of thousands of people to leave their homes -
it doesn't make sense," Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Robert Wood told reporters.
Even as the evacuation was under way, Russia shelled Ukrainian-held
territory across the river. Cracks of incoming artillery sent people
trying to flee running for cover in Kherson. Reuters reporters heard
four incoming artillery blasts near a residential neighbourhood
where civilians were evacuating on Tuesday evening. The governor
said one person was killed.
Russia said for its part that a Ukrainian drone had struck a town on
the opposite bank during evacuations there and accused the Ukrainian
side of continuing shelling despite the flooding.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jun/07/images/ads/current/charrons_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
The emptying reservoir supplies water that cools Europe's biggest
nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia upstream. The U.N. nuclear
watchdog said the plant should have enough water to cool its
reactors for "some months" from a separate pond.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Peter Graff; editing by
Philippa Fletcher)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |