Chaos continued in southern Ukraine on Friday as security forces, emergency workers and ordinary citizens risked life and limb to evacuate people from a vast area flooded by the destruction of a crucial dam in Russian dominated territory. At least several square kilometers along a southern stretch of the Dnipro River, bordered by industry and farmland, have been inundated by floodwaters laced with debris, fuel and other pollutants.
Ukraine Russia accused of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and dam “from the inside” early Tuesday morning, releasing a torrent of water from the massive reservoir it was holding back in the surrounding Kherson region.
The city of Kherson is less than 50 miles downstream from the broken dam. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a social media post on Friday that four people were confirmed dead and at least 13 others were missing amid the flooding. He said some 2,412 people had been evacuated. A Russian official in the region put a figure on the death toll.
ALINA SMUTKO/REUTERS
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app that “hundreds of thousands of people” in cities and towns across the flooded Dnipro were struggling to find clean water.
“In more than 40 settlements, life has been broken,” the president, who is the top diplomat, said earlier this week, accusing Russia of blowing up the dam in a”heinous war crime.”
Russia, whose forces had occupied the key piece of infrastructure for months, claimed it was Ukrainian troops who damaged the dam, but Moscow has offered no evidence to back up the claim. Military analysts have said that Vladimir Putin’s troops, who are facing a counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces, stand to gain the most from the dam’s destruction.
Yasin Demirci/Anadolu Agency/Getty
The dam was also a key road across the Dnipro River, which in much of southern Ukraine serves as a geographic barrier between Ukrainian-controlled land in the west and Russian-controlled land in the east. By flooding a wide stretch along the southern part of the river, the border between the two sides has been extended several times, which will complicate any concerted bid by Ukrainian troops to push Russia back into the parts of the Kherson region that still occupy
Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive was underway, a US official told CBS News on Friday, who said Ukrainian brigades trained by US and NATO forces were making good progress as they were facing Russian troops in the Zaporzhzhia region, just north of Kherson.
In the city of Kherson, which Ukraine recaptured from Russian forces last year, and the flooded areas around it, rescue efforts in the disaster zone have been severely hampered by the fact that it is also an area of active war
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Evacuating residents is deadly business. Ships are moving quickly through flood-affected areas, ferrying people not only to dry land but also away from the ongoing Russian bombardment.
News cameras rolled as an elderly man was rescued by volunteers from his submerged home, only to be hit in the head moments later by flying shrapnel as a shell landed nearby.
When asked what it was like to work in these conditions, one rescuer said: “adrenaline!” before indicating that he had to move due to incoming fire.
Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, was among those helping emergency crews bring residents to safety Thursday as more shells landed nearby. He was filming a social media video of the efforts when he and fellow rescuers were forced to huddle for cover as explosions rang out nearby.
Now we are in Kherson, we are trying to evacuate people… miraculously survived. Details later pic.twitter.com/oHcKcTcw0h
— Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Azman (@RabbiUkraine) June 8, 2023
“We are now in Kherson, we are trying to evacuate people…he miraculously survived,” he later said in a tweet with the video.
Meanwhile, north of Kherson, on the long front line that stretches up and down across eastern Ukraine, the country’s forces have stepped up offensive operations around the besieged city of Bakhmut, which only recently was taken by Russian troops.
Ukrainian officials have said they are making steady gains on the front in recent days and weeks but, despite intense speculation, have not declared a formal start of the long-awaited full-scale counteroffensive.
US officials told CBS News this week that the counteroffensive appeared to be in its early stages and had seen an increase in fighting in a key region along the southern front line.
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