Almost two months have passed since Russia blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. At the same time, there is still little information about the situation on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro, although it was the most affected by this terrible terrorist attack.
More than half of the towns and villages flooded due to Russia’s undermining of the Kakhovka HPP are on the Left Bank of the Dnipro, which is now occupied by Russia. One of the worst situations is in the town of Oleshky and its surroundings. The town of Oleshky is located on the left bank of the Dnipro near Kherson right by the river. From Nova Kakhovka, where the dam was blown up, to Oleshky is about 70 kilometers. The water reached there around 3 p.m. on June 6.
Cities most affected by flooding (red — Russia-occupied, blue — liberated), Source: BBC
Scale of flooding
The situation in Russian-occupied Oleshky and neighboring territories (the town and 12 villages of the Oleshky territorial community) after the dam of the Kakhovka reservoir was blown up was catastrophic: there are dead, almost no communication, the occupation administration did not evacuate people on the first day of the disaster, and now there is no such possibility.
According to Mayor Yevhen Ryshchuk, the city is about 90% flooded. “The water level in the city today is 2–3 meters. Houses are flooded almost to the roof. In addition, the town of Oleshky has lowlands. So the water level there has risen to 4 meters. So the situation with flooding is difficult,” explains the mayor.
About 8,000 people remained in the settlement after it was captured by Russian troops, which is about 20% of the 40,000 population before the occupation. The situation is also difficult in the neighborhood. Pidstepne and Pishchanka are 50% flooded. Pravi Solontsi and Pravi Sagi are completely flooded, with water standing up to four meters high. That is, the villages are suffering as much as the city.
Evacuation
At the very beginning, the occupiers said that mass evacuation from the occupied territories was not necessary. However, when the scale of the flooding could not be concealed, they began to claim that more than 4,000 people had been evacuated, which seems false given the complaints of the locals.
It is noted that residents of the occupied Oleshky and Hola Prystan were trying to escape the flood all night. Many houses were completely flooded — people are sitting on the roofs. Since the occupiers do not act in this regard, the population of the left bank is forced to look for boats on their own.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the Russian occupiers who blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant not only do not evacuate people, but also do not allow them to escape on their own. Russia has committed a terrorist attack and is holding people hostage.
“Entire families are sitting on the roofs of houses, begging for help and rescue, but the occupation authorities do not respond to their requests. They have removed themselves from these responsibilities,” emphasized Lubinets.
Thus, the locals published a video of one of these volunteer rescue operations. The footage shows that the boat first sails through the flooded village, and then turns into the main channel of the Dnipro and then heads to the right unoccupied bank. At the same time, the people in the video claim that they need to “break through”.
This confirms reports from locals that the Russians are not letting anyone out of the city and are not allowing volunteers to pick up people. “There is no way to leave the city. They write that the current is strong, it is dangerous to use rubber boats. People are trying to organize themselves to help others, but there are no boats. The Russians are also not letting people through. They are also writing in groups that they are not letting people in cars who left for Radensk and Kopani on their own yesterday,” said one of the locals.
The Ukrainian military also released a video from a drone over Oleshky, showing a mother and son on the roof of a house asking for help, with only water around them. They were even able to deliver a bottle of water by drone, said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa military administration.
The situation was complicated by the fact that most people have no connection. It’s a commonplace that since the dam collapsed, everyone’s phones have almost run out of power, making it impossible for locals to simply call for help.
According to a journalistic investigation by Texty, which examined local chat messages, as of 4 p.m. on June 7, more than 500 marks had already been placed on the volunteers’ map, marking the locations of people in danger and waiting for help from volunteers. One such mark can contain several applications at once, and several people can submit one application.
Here are examples of some of them:
“Tell me, is there anyone from Engels Street? I am looking for my father. There is no connection for the second day”.
“A woman with a disability, 84 years old, was left alone in the house, she does not walk. There is no connection!!! If anyone is around, please come in, the neighbors know where the key is. Please!”
“Help, please!!! My parents are sitting in the attic, the water is still coming under the ceiling! The Solontsi are right. They are pensioners, my mother had a stroke.”
Locals and volunteers also confirm that access to most settlements is closed. Even people with Russian passports are not allowed to enter, and no one explains their motives. The entire evacuation relies on local people, whose resources are extremely limited.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that about a month ago, the Russians began confiscating boats from the local population. In particular, there was information about this in Genichesk.
The scale of the tragedy
President Zelenskyy also spoke about the Russians’ intention to hide the number of civilian casualties. He said that the Russian invaders had set up special groups on the temporarily occupied left bank of the Kherson region that may try to hide the bodies of victims of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant explosion and large-scale flooding.
“We have information about what is happening in the occupied part of the Kherson region. Even the word “disaster” is not enough for this. The Russian evil has formed special groups there to clean up and, obviously, hide the bodies of the dead. This is not the first time Russia has done this — it is trying to destroy evidence and traces of its crimes in the occupied territory. They did this in Mariupol and other places. But this is the truth that cannot be hidden,” the President emphasized.
According to regional authorities, 68% of the flooding occurred on the left bank, so the number of casualties there may objectively exceed those on the right bank. According to the United Nations, as of June 18, a total of 52 civilian casualties were recorded, of which 35 were confirmed in Russian-controlled territory. A few days later, the occupation forces reported 41 casualties.
As of July 20, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 31 people were killed in the government-controlled territory.
Given the scale of the tragedy, the figures announced by the Russians appear to be entirely underestimated. According to the General Staff of Ukraine, more than 60 bodies were found as a result of search and recovery operations on June 24–25 alone. “In order to conceal the real number of victims, the command of the Russian occupation forces decided to bury the dead in mass graves without taking DNA samples and setting any marks at the grave site,” the General Staff said.
The Ministry of Reintegration of the Occupied Territories of Ukraine has received about 311 appeals on the disappearance of persons after the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. Of these, 90% are reportedly from the occupied territories, i.e. 280 civilians. The whereabouts of 202 of them were confirmed. That is, about a hundred people are considered missing. Given the aforementioned communication problems, the actual number is much higher.
Thus, this proves not only the absence of full-fledged work to overcome the consequences of the terrorist attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in the occupied territories, but also the attempt of the Russian occupiers to conceal the terrible consequences of this crime.
留言