Ukrainians abandoned their homes on Wednesday as floods surged through the south following the destruction of a huge hydroelectric dam on front lines between Russian and Ukrainian forces. Residents dragged through flooded streets carrying children on their shoulders, belongings in plastic bags, and dogs in their arms while rescuers used rubber boats to search areas where the water reached above head height. Ukraine expressed worry that the disaster would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, swamp ten of thousands of hectares of agricultural land and turn at least 500,000 hectares deprived of irrigation into deserts. Drones are being used to deliver water bottles to stranded people in Russian-controlled areas of the Kherson region.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of deliberately blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam, but it's not yet clear what caused the breach.
According to some experts, previous fighting in August and November last year could have contributed.
“I think that structural failure resulting from the impact of earlier damage associated with the war remains a possibility,” says Mark Mulligan, professor of physical geography at University College London.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian forces of shelling Ukrainian emergency workers who are trying to rescue people from floodwaters caused by the destruction of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam.
Speaking in his nightly address on Wednesday, Zelensky said that over 2,000 people have been rescued so far from flooding in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions which, he said, contrasted starkly with Russian-occupied regions where he accused Moscow’s forces of simply abandoning people to the flood.
Zelensky also said it is impossible to predict how many people will die in Russian-occupied areas as he appeals for international assistance.
He said the flooding may have started to stabilize in Kherson, downriver from Nova Kakhovka, but water is expected to pour out through the shattered dam for weeks to come.
He also accused international community of not reacting quickly enough. The World Bank has offered to conduct a rapid assessment of the damage and Ukraine’s most urgent needs.
Another major problem caused by the flood is that landmines were dislodged when the Kakhovka dam was breached.
According to reports the location of landmines were known but now all that is known is that they are somewhere downstream.
The mines have now “shifted location”, moving downstream and also into populated areas, Erik Tollefsen, personnel of Red Cross weapons contamination unit tells BBC.
According to Tollefsen most of the landmines are victim-activated, and are usually triggered by people stepping on them or activating them in a slightly different way.
