“More and more water is arriving with each passing hour”: people fleeing floods caused by the destruction of a dam in Ukraine

In the south of Ukraine there is a major catastrophe after the rupture of a dam in the Kherson region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said nearly 100 towns and villages are under water and thousands of people had to be evacuated.

Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of blowing up the dam, but once again it is civilians who bear the brunt.

“This is a great ecological catastrophe”Ukrainian parliamentarian Oleksiy Goncharenko told the BBC. He added that more than 150 tons of motor oil from the dam near the city of Nova Kajovka is polluting the water.

“The consequences will last for decades,” he said.

Goncharenko warned that dozens of thousands of lives are in danger on both sides of the Dnieper riverincluding in the Russian-occupied region of Ukraine to the south and in the city of Kherson to the north, which Ukraine recaptured in November.

“We see with our own eyes that the water level is rising,” he adds. “And it moves very fast. Destroying the dam with such dire consequences is outrageous.”

Videos on social media show water gushing through the breach near the dam in the town of Nova Kajovka.

“A flood is coming”, said Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s attorney general. “We expect the maximum (water level) to be reached within several hours.”

He said 17,000 people have already been evacuated and warned that more than 40,000 are in danger from flooding.

Hanna Zarudnia, 65, was one of the evacuees from the town of Antonivka. “Our local school and the downtown stadium were flooded. The stadium was completely under water,” she told Reuters.

“The road was completely flooded, the bus was stuck. The bus could only go to a high point and that’s where they took us out.”

Olga, another Kherson resident, said that houses were flooded and an evacuation was underway.

He assured that he packed his suitcase and prepared everything he needed, but that he has four cats and two dogs and does not know how to take them.

“I am 62 years old and all my life I have state here. My children had to leave and I stayed. I don’t want to leave this place,” she said.

On the southern bank of the Dnieper river, an official from the Russian-occupied Kherson province said the town of Oleshky was “completely flooded.”

“Evacuation is possible only with special equipment,” Andrei Alexeyenko said on Telegram.

He also posted videos showing a car floating at window level and a truck driving down a highway submerged in at least 12 inches of water.

Russian soldiers patrolled the streets, several local residents told Reuters.

“Getting close, and especially taking a photo or video, is deadly. They say they are ready to fire without warningsaid Hlib, a local resident.

Yevheniya, who also lives in the area, said the water was up to the knees of Russian soldiers walking down the main street in tall rubber boots.

“If you try to go somewhere you’re not allowed, immediately they point their machine guns at you“, said.

“Every hour more water comes, it is very dirty.”

A local Ukrainian politician from the Mykolaiv region, just north of the Nova Kajovka dam, told the BBC that he expects to receive a large number of refugees fleeing the floods in the coming days.

“We have a help point for refugees, where they are provided with food, medicine, clothing and psychological assistance,” said Oleh Pylypenko, head of the Shevchenkivka United Territorial Community.

He added that the civilians will be transferred to temporary accommodation elsewhere in the Mykolaiv region by bus.

At least 24 different settlements in the Kherson region are already floodedreported the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Speaking to the Bucharest Nine, a summit that brings together nations on NATO’s eastern border, on Tuesday, Zelensky detailed the immediate effects of the flooding.

“At least 100,000 people lived in these areas before the Russian invasion. And tens of thousands are still there. 80 cities and towns are under water,” he claimed.

Zelensky, who said in October that Russia was planning to blow up the Kakhovka dam, warned that the evacuations are only the initial consequences.

The president said the Russian-controlled dam on the Dnieper river was destroyed by an internal explosion, but Moscow insists Ukrainian shelling destroyed the dam.

It may take some time to answer questions about who flew The prey, since much of the evidence is also underwater.

However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is clear that civilians on both sides of the war will have to deal with the consequences of the floods.

“The destruction of the Kakhovka dam today puts thousands of civilians at risk and causes serious damage to the environment. This is a scandalous act that once again demonstrates the cruelty of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” he tweeted.

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