Hundreds of exhausted people, some with only bags or pets, fled submerged villages on Wednesday as rescue efforts moved forward across southern India. ukraineThe day after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, another humanitarian disaster unfolded at the front of the 15-month war.
Floodwaters engulfed streets and homes, sent residents fleeing on boats and tore off roofs in dozens of communities on both sides of the Dnieper River, which divides the warring armies across much of southern Ukraine. A total of about 3,000 people were evacuated in Russian- and Ukrainian-controlled areas, according to officials on both sides, a fraction of the roughly 41,000 residents whom Ukrainian officials have said are at risk.
There were still no confirmed reports of the deaths and the scale of the disaster. Ukraine said the floods would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, wash away thousands of hectares of agricultural land and turn at least 500,000 hectares into a “desert” devoid of irrigation. Russia imposed a state of emergency in parts of Kherson province under its control, where several towns and villages are located in the lowlands below the dam. in town new star In Kakhovka, right next to the dam, gray water submerged the main streets, which were largely empty of residents. Russia’s TASS quoted the Russian-installed mayor, Vladimir Leontiev, as saying more than 30,000 cubic meters of water per second was gushing out of the reservoir and the city was at risk of being contaminated by the torrent.
Ukraine expects floodwaters to stop rising by the end of Wednesday, with the water reaching its highest level in 17 settlements with a combined population of 16,000 people, presidential deputy Oleksiy Kuleba said. Has gone. “The full magnitude of the devastation will be felt in the coming days,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the UNSC. The targeting of dams in warfare is explicitly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
“The whole world will know about this Russian war crime,” Ukrainian President Zelensky in his nightly address, calling it “an environmental bomb of mass destruction”. Earlier he said that Russia blew up the power plant of the dam from inside. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of breaching the dam to divert attention from a retaliatory strike. The US said it was still gathering evidence on who was to blame, but that Ukraine would have had no reason to inflict such a catastrophe on itself.
Floodwaters engulfed streets and homes, sent residents fleeing on boats and tore off roofs in dozens of communities on both sides of the Dnieper River, which divides the warring armies across much of southern Ukraine. A total of about 3,000 people were evacuated in Russian- and Ukrainian-controlled areas, according to officials on both sides, a fraction of the roughly 41,000 residents whom Ukrainian officials have said are at risk.
There were still no confirmed reports of the deaths and the scale of the disaster. Ukraine said the floods would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, wash away thousands of hectares of agricultural land and turn at least 500,000 hectares into a “desert” devoid of irrigation. Russia imposed a state of emergency in parts of Kherson province under its control, where several towns and villages are located in the lowlands below the dam. in town new star In Kakhovka, right next to the dam, gray water submerged the main streets, which were largely empty of residents. Russia’s TASS quoted the Russian-installed mayor, Vladimir Leontiev, as saying more than 30,000 cubic meters of water per second was gushing out of the reservoir and the city was at risk of being contaminated by the torrent.
Ukraine expects floodwaters to stop rising by the end of Wednesday, with the water reaching its highest level in 17 settlements with a combined population of 16,000 people, presidential deputy Oleksiy Kuleba said. Has gone. “The full magnitude of the devastation will be felt in the coming days,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the UNSC. The targeting of dams in warfare is explicitly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
“The whole world will know about this Russian war crime,” Ukrainian President Zelensky in his nightly address, calling it “an environmental bomb of mass destruction”. Earlier he said that Russia blew up the power plant of the dam from inside. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of breaching the dam to divert attention from a retaliatory strike. The US said it was still gathering evidence on who was to blame, but that Ukraine would have had no reason to inflict such a catastrophe on itself.