thousands evacuate as fears of a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe grow

The disconcerting barking of the dogs left behind further hurts the mood of those forced to flee their homes by the magnitude of the flooding in Nova Kakhovka.

Others walk through the flooded streets with pets in their arms, children on their shoulders and their belongings in plastic bags, while rescuers use rubber boats to search areas where people are almost completely covered by water.

On rafts and then on military trucks, hundreds of people continue to desperately evacuate this Tuesday after the destruction of the hydroelectric power station and the collapse of the city’s dam a day earlier. A full-blown tragedy for which its authorship has not yet been confirmed amid the exchange of accusations between the Kiev forces and the Moscow troops, who control the area where the facility is located.

“The Russians hit the dam and didn’t think about the consequences… They shouldn’t be forgiven,” said Oleksandr Sokeryn, who fled his home with his family after it was completely flooded.

Evacuations are underway. However, at least seven people are missing, around 100 remain trapped and thousands of wild animals have diedsaid the mayor imposed by the Kremlin in the area.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian officials occupying south Kherson, on the left bank of the Dnieper River that surrounds the region, of failing in their duty to evacuate residents, saying his government it will appeal to international organizations to help these people.

“The human and environmental cost is enormous”

The scale of the disaster is monumental. Although around 17,000 inhabitants were evacuated a day earlier, Some 42,000 inhabitants are at risk from flooding on both sides of the Dnieper Riverindicate the Ukrainian authorities.

Some 22,000 residents live in flood risk areas in Russian-controlled towns on the eastern side of the river, while 16,000 live in the most critical area of ​​Ukrainian-controlled territory on the western side.

In addition, “hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to drinking water,” Zelenski noted.

Kiev’s estimates are known after the head of UN humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, assured the security council that the rupture of the dam “will have serious and far-reaching consequences for thousands of people in southern Ukraine.” on both sides of the front line through the loss of homes, food, drinking water and livelihoods.”

“The sheer scale of the catastrophe will only be fully known in the coming days,” Griffiths stressed.

As towns and villages are submerged under water, “the human and environmental cost of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam is a huge humanitarian disaster and the international community must unite to bring those responsible to justice (…) The norms of International Humanitarian Law specifically protect dams, due to the dangers that their destruction represents for civilians”, he recalled. the director of Amnesty International in Eastern Europe, Marie Struthers.

As if that were not enough, civilians should also remain vigilant for land mines moved by the floods, warns the State Emergency Service in Kherson Oblast after accusing Russian forces of blowing up the dam.

“Environmental bomb of mass destruction”

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam may also have serious ecological, economic, military and legal consequences.

Accusing Russia of “ecocide”, President Zelensky stressed that an “environmental bomb of mass destruction” had been dropped at the site, although Moscow denies any responsibility and has instead pointed to Ukraine as the determiner of the explosion.

Although local authorities warn that it will take days to know the total number of victims and quantify the damage, the images from the disaster area are devastating. And it is that thousands of wild animals have died and hundreds of dead fish are observed on the banks of the river.

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In addition to direct damage from ingress of water to homes, land and businesses, flooding can pick up hazardous chemicals from where they are stored on land, distributing them over a wide area and into the Black Sea, Oleh Savitskyi told Ukrainian media. , an ecology expert from the non-profit organization Razom We stand.

Other areas may lose their main water supply for a long time. This includes Crimea, occupied by Moscow since 2014, which relied on water diverted from the Dnieper through the reservoir. A situation that will ruin large areas of agriculture on the continent and the peninsula.

Faced with this situation, hehorticulturists in the region will lose 20,000 hectares of productive landaccording to the agricultural consultancy Agroanalysis, whose director, Vadym Dudka, said the disaster delayed the restoration of Kherson’s vegetable production by five years.

It will also force major industries, such as metallurgical plants, to stop in several cities because they need uninterrupted access to water.

The hydrological regime of the Dnieper River, the main river in Ukraine, will be reformed, causing unpredictable and possibly dangerous changes for people and other beings living in the regions through which it flows. Many fish, birds, and aquatic animals may die or lose their habitat.

Emergency work under Russian fire

Not even the magnitude of the current emergency has stopped the attacks by the invading troops. Dozens of rescuers work while the shelling resounds.

Relief workers on the Ukrainian-controlled Right Bank of the Dnieper River say they have had to carry out their work under the roar of Russian bombs.

“The biggest difficulty right now is not the water. It is the Russians across the river who are now shelling us with artillery,” said Andrew Negrych, coordinator of relief efforts for the US NGO Global Empowerment Mission.

The disaster in Nova Kakhovka marks a turning point in the warso some experts point out that either side of the conflict could have seen an advantage in the course of the conflict with the destruction of the dam.

“For the Russians, the reason for doing it would have been to stop the Ukrainian counter-offensive, obviously. And to create a humanitarian situation in Kherson, where people need to be evacuated and create swamps so the Ukrainians can’t use their mechanized infantry, for example (… ) For Ukraine, the gap could have provided a way to distract the Russians,” said Marina Miron, a researcher at King’s College London.

However, kyiv insists that the intervention of the Russians is clear. “I don’t understand how there can be any doubt about it. Both constructions are located in the temporary territories occupied by Russia. Neither shelling nor any other external influence is capable of destroying the structures. The explosion came from within,” remarked Zelensky’s chief of staff.

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the blowing up of the dam as a “barbaric act”. responsibility, according to the Kremlin, points to kyiv.

As Russia forecasts high water levels in the area to persist for three to 10 days, Ukraine’s intelligence director Kyrylo Budanov stressed that the disaster would only delay Ukrainian offensive actions in the region by a maximum of two weeks.

With Reuters, AP and local media