Global Courant
Five residents of a Russian-occupied town next to a breached dam have died in massive flooding triggered by the disaster, the Kremlin-appointed mayor said Thursday. than 15 months ago.
Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-appointed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, told Russian state television that two other people missing after Tuesday’s dam burst had been found and efforts were being made to evacuate them.
Officials say at least 4,000 people have been evacuated from both the Russian- and Ukrainian-controlled banks of the Dnipro River, which has become part of the front line between the armed forces.
On the Ukrainian-controlled western bank, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived on Thursday to assess the response to the damage caused by the dam breach. He wrote on his Telegram account that he was helping assess efforts to evacuate civilians, provide them with drinking water and other support, and prevent massive environmental damage.
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The ecological effect of the Kakhovka dam failure in Ukraine
The shores of the Kakhovka Reservoir were littered with thousands of dead fish after the dam burst in southern Ukraine. Marianske villagers are working to build a makeshift dam to save what’s left, but ecology experts warn the effect of the breach could spread further up the food chain.
Zelenskyy also raised the prospect of financial relief for residents and businesses displaced from their homes and offices by the rising waters.
‘People are tired’
Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the average flood level in the region exceeded 5.6 meters on Thursday morning and about 600 square kilometers of the region was inundated – more than two-thirds of it on the Russian-controlled eastern bank.
He said nearly 2,000 people had been evacuated from Ukrainian-controlled areas and operations continued despite continued shelling from Russian troops across the river.
“People are tired … (they) don’t feel like fleeing to other regions of Ukraine,” Prokudin said.
Rescuers and volunteers unload bottles of drinking water from a vehicle in Kherson, Ukraine, on Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the region flooded by the breached Kakhovka Dam. (Aleksey Filippov/AFP/Getty Images)
The true extent of the disaster has yet to be seen in an affected area where more than 60,000 people lived.
The Kakhovka dam and its reservoir, which are essential for fresh water and irrigation for southern Ukraine, are located in the Kherson region that Moscow illegally annexed in September — parts of which have been occupied by Russian troops for the past year.
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Rescues and evacuations continue in the flood plain of Ukraine
Ukrainian officials say floodwaters are beginning to recede in Kherson, but evacuations continue in streets submerged in dirty water containing everything from oil to animal carcasses.
The reservoir is also critical to the water supply of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the dam’s destruction was an “attack” and a “cruel act”, without saying who is to blame. Paris said it was rushing with aid, including water purifiers, 500,000 water purification tablets and hygiene kits to help people displaced by the disaster.
Consequences for crops
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry warned on Thursday that several million tons of crops could be lost due to flooding caused by the destruction of the dam.
Vegetables, melons, grains and oilseeds were the main products grown on the affected land, the ministry said.
“Without a source of water supply, it is impossible to grow vegetables. Grain and oilseeds will be grown on an extended model with low yields,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the breach would flood tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land in southern Ukraine and could turn at least 500,000 hectares of land without irrigation into “deserts”. The flooded land would require a full agroecological assessment of soil conditions and, in most cases, special methods of soil restoration would have to be applied, the ministry said.
Deadly night shelling reported in Donetsk
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of deliberately destroying the dam, which is located in an area controlled by Russian forces.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, supported Russian claims that Ukraine blew up the dam to divert attention from what it described as a failed Ukrainian attempt to launch a counter-offensive .
Meanwhile, in the city of Ukrainsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, three people, including a four-year-old boy, were killed in Russian shelling, the regional governor said, according to a Reuters report.
Five people, including three children, were also injured in the same attack and two were injured in attacks elsewhere in the region, Governor Pavlo Kirilenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters was unable to verify the message.
