Russia bombs Kherson 24 hours after dam attack: 42,000 Ukrainians at risk

It seems increasingly clear that Russia had everything prepared. First, the explosion of the Nova Kakhovka dam. Then he constant bombardment in the Kherson region, taking advantage of the chaos generated and the evacuation operation. As a consequence of these repeated attacks one person has died and another has been injured.

The shelling also included the city of Kherson, the Ukrainian governor of the region, Oleksandr Prokudin, reported via Telegram. Besides, 38,000 people have had to leave their homes and 42,000 are in danger after the water has inundated more than 80 settlements.

Oleksandr Prokudin said this Wednesday that 1582 houses were flooded on the right bank of the Dnieper River and some 1457 people were evacuated overnight, while the United Nations aid chief warned of “serious and far-reaching consequences”.

[La jugada maestra de Putin o por qué la presa de Nova Kajovka es crucial: las tres ventajas que logra Rusia]

“Of seven people that we know for sure (they are missing),” TASS reported, quoting Nova Kakhovka mayor Vladimir Leontiev. More than 900 people were evacuated on Tuesday from the Russian-controlled city, which lies on the left bank of the Dnieper River.

Bombings in Kherson

Distraught residents of the Ukrainian city of Kherson evacuated their homes on Tuesday under artillery fire. Some residents were crying as they put their belongings in the cars. A meteorologist measuring the river level at the scene told Reuters that the water level was 3.5 meters higher than Monday, before the dam was destroyed.

Kherson, on the banks of the great Ukrainian river Dnieper, is located about 60 kilometers upriver from where the Nova Kajovka dam was located, a structure from the 50s of 3200 meters long that kyiv accused Russia of flying in an “act of terrorism”.

The Kremlin, however, blamed Ukrainearguing that he was trying to divert attention from the release of his “failed counteroffensive“, but the truth is that all the evidence points to the fact that it was Putin who gave the order to carry out an explosion that only benefits his interests.

Mykola, a 73-year-old retiree, was walking down the street towards the mainland, drenched from the shoulders down and carrying his hands. few belongings that he could save. The water was up to his chest.

Minutes after the evacuation began, the noise of the artillery made people run for shelter. However, it was not easy to find refugesince the water rose more and more through the streets of Kherson.

On Tuesday night, Reuters reporters heard four artillery bursts near a flooded residential area south of Kherson from which civilians were being evacuated. The Ukrainian Interior Minister had previously stated that Russia was shelling areas where the population was being evacuated and that two policemen had been injured.

Oksana, a resident of the city, wiped away tears while unloading plastic bags full of her belongings from her son-in-law’s car. The house of this 53-year-old woman had been flooded on Tuesday morning. The contents of the bags were all she could salvage.

“Everything is floating,” he says. “All the furniture, the food in the fridge, all the flowers, everything is floating. I don’t know what to do“, he told Reuters.