Between three and eight people have died as a result of the floods caused by the destruction – on Monday night – of the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station in southern Ukraine, according to reports by the Ukrainian media and Russian authorities, in what would be the first confirmed deaths from the catastrophe. At the same time, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, warned that there will be more deaths and regretted the lack of assistance from the United Nations and the Red Cross, in communications given prior to his visit this Thursday to the city of Kherson, highly affected by the rise of the water of the Dnieper river.
According to the Kyiv Independent, citing the exiled mayor of the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, Yevhen Ryshchuk, "three people drowned" in the Kherson region. The Russian-installed mayor of Nóva Kajovka added later on Thursday that five people had been killed, Russia's state-run RIA news agency reported. It is unknown if the death toll given by Moscow includes the three previous deaths or would be added to them.
Zelensky said in his address to the nation last night that the situation in the occupied part of the Kherson province is "absolutely catastrophic." According to the Ukrainian president, the authorities imposed by Russia in the region have abandoned people to their fate "without water" and "on the roofs of flooded towns." "And this is another deliberate crime of Russia: after the terrorist state has caused the disaster, it also maximizes the damage caused by it," he said.
According to Russian security services, in the Russian-occupied area of Kherson some 14,000 houses have been flooded after the dam burst, and 4,300 people have been evacuated. From the Ukrainian side, the Kherson governor reported Thursday that 600 square kilometers of the region were under water, most of it on the Russian-occupied side of the river, and that almost 2,000 people had already left the affected areas.
The province of Jershon is bisected by the Dnieper River, where the dam and the destroyed power plant were located. The western bank is controlled by the Kyiv Government and the eastern one occupied by Russia.
Also, Zelensky expressed in an interview with international media his dismay at what he said was the failure of the United Nations and the Red Cross to assist Ukrainians after the catastrophe. Although the catastrophe occurred many hours ago, "they are not here," Zelensky lamented to the German newspapers Bild and Die Welt and also to Politico. "We haven't had an answer. I'm shocked."
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal urged international humanitarian organizations to provide urgent assistance. "The Russian occupiers do not even make an effort to help these people, they have left them to die," the prime minister said in a video on Telegram. "We call for them to take charge of the evacuation of people from the territory of the Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast. We must save the lives of the people the occupiers have sentenced to death."
In his interview, Zelensky said that Russian soldiers were firing from a distance while rescue attempts were being made. The president added later in his message last night that Russia continues to bombard the part of Kherson province under the control of the Kyiv government while rescue teams work to save the victims. “The evacuation continues. Under fire! The Russian artillery continues to fire, no matter what. Savages,” Zelensky said.
According to Kyiv, Russia intentionally blew up the dam and power plant, which were located in the occupied zone, to flood the territory and hinder a possible Ukrainian advance. Instead, Moscow accuses Ukraine of having sabotaged the dam in order to destroy the positions of Russian soldiers on the southern front.
