KHERSON: Thousands were fleeing their homes on Wednesday after the destruction of a frontline Russian-held dam in Ukraine flooded dozens of villages and parts of a nearby city, sparking fears of a humanitarian disaster.
Downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian police and troops in the southern city of Kherson were bringing people out from inundated areas in inflatable boats, most clutching only a few documents and pets.
Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for the dam being ripped open early on Tuesday, prompting Türkiye’s president to propose to both nations’ leaders an international probe of the breach.
The destruction has also raised fears of an environmental disaster and nuclear safety risks as it provides cooling water for Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
The water was waist-deep in central streets of Kherson and ground floors of buildings were submerged.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s emergency services, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, said that “currently there is no information about the dead or injured”.
Water levels in Kherson have risen by five metres, he said.
While finger-pointing continued over the dam’s destruction, Moscow accused Kyiv of blowing up a key pipeline that Russia used before the war to export ammonia and whose re-activation it has requested as part of grain deal talks.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said 1,700 people had been evacuated so far and reported that ongoing shelling was endangering rescuers and locals.
Moscow-installed officials on the Russian side of the river said that more than 1,200 people had been evacuated.
A policeman, Sergiy, 38, was using a radio to coordinate the rescue boats.
“Today we’ve already saved 30 people, 10 pets. There was one child. We will work until we’ve brought out all the people,” he said.
Washington warned there would be “likely many deaths” due to the breach of the Kakhovka dam.
Kyiv said the destruction of the dam was an attempt by Moscow to hamper its long-awaited offensive, which Ukraine’s leader stressed would not be affected.
While the United Nations warned that hundreds of thousands could be affected on both sides of the frontline.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said 1,852 houses had been flooded by early on Wednesday.
An official in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Daria Zarivna, said that in the occupied territory “the Russians simply abandoned people” and in the town of Oleshky on the opposite bank from Kherson, “many spent the night on the roofs of houses”. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
