Ukrainians face floods, disease after dam destruction

Ukrainians have fled their homes as floods hit a swath of the southern region on Wednesday after the destruction of a vast dam on the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces, who are sharing the blame for each other.

Residents navigated flooded streets carrying children on their backs, dogs in their arms and personal items in plastic bags, while rescuers used rubber dinghies to search for areas where the water had reached head height.

Ukraine said the floods will leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to clean water, inundate tens of thousands of hectares of farmland and create more deserts.

“If the water rises another meter, we will lose our home,” said Oleksandr Reva, in a waterside village, who was moving his family’s belongings to a neighbor’s abandoned house on higher ground. The roof of a house could be seen being swept away by the Dnipro River in a current.

The New Kakhovka Dam disaster coincides with a long-awaited imminent counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces, seen as the next big phase of the war. Each side accused the other of continuing to bomb the flooded area and warned of mines unearthed by the event.

Kiev said Wednesday its troops in the east had advanced more than a kilometer around the ruined city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, its most outspoken declaration of progress since Russia announced the start of a Ukrainian offensive this week. week. Russia said it fought off the attack.

Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that the ongoing attacks are still localized and that the full-scale offensive has not yet started: “When we start the counter-offensive, everyone will know, they will see,” he told Reuters.

Residents of the flood zone in the south of the country attributed the dam’s failure to Russian troops who controlled it from their posts on the opposite bank.

“They hate us,” Reva said. “They want to destroy a Ukrainian nation and Ukraine itself. And they don’t care about the means, because nothing is sacred to them.”

Russia has imposed a state of emergency in the parts of Kherson province it controls, where many towns and villages sit on the plains below the dam. Residents told Reuters by telephone that Russian troops patrolling the streets were threatening approaching civilians.

Ukraine expects floods to stop increasing by the end of Wednesday after reaching about five meters overnight, Deputy Presidential Chief Oleksiy Kuleba said.

So far, two thousand people have been evacuated from the Ukrainian-controlled part of the flood zone and the water level has reached its highest level in 17 settlements with a combined population of 16,000 people.

“Everything is under water, all the furniture, the refrigerator, the food, all the flowers, everything is floating. I don’t know what to do,” said 53-year-old Oksana in the city of Kherson.

Russia’s state-run Tass news agency said water levels could remain high in some places for up to 10 days.

Source: Terra

Rose

Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.