Five residents of a Russian-occupied city next to a breached dam have died in massive flooding triggered by the catastrophe, its Kremlin-appointed mayor said Thursday, the first official report of deaths from one of the largest environmental crises since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than 15 months ago.
Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-appointed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, told Russian state TV that two other people who had gone missing following Tuesday’s dam breach had been found, and efforts were underway to evacuate them.
Officials say at least 4,000 people have been evacuated from both the Russian and Ukrainian-controlled sides of the Dnipro River, which has become part of the front line between the fighting forces.
On the Ukrainian-controlled western bank, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived Thursday to evaluate the response to damage caused by the dam breach. He wrote on his Telegram account that he was helping assess efforts to evacuate civilians, provide them with drinking water and other support, and try to stanch vast environmental damage.
The shores of the Kakhovka reservoir were littered with thousands of dead fish after the dam in southern Ukraine was breached. Villagers from Marianske are working to build a makeshift dam to save what’s left, but ecology experts warn that the effect of the breach may spread further up the food chain.
Zelenskyy also raised the prospect of financial aid for residents and businesses driven from their homes and offices by the rising waters.
‘People are tired’
Regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said the average level of flooding Thursday morning in the region was more than 5.6 metres, and roughly 600 square kilometres of the region were submerged — more than two-thirds of that on the Russian-controlled eastern bank.
He said nearly 2,000 people had been evacuated from Ukraine-controlled areas, and the operations were continuing despite constant shelling from Russian forces across the river.
“People are tired … [they] have no desire to flee to other regions of Ukraine,” Prokudin said.
The true scale of the disaster is yet to emerge in an affected area that was home to more than 60,000 people.
The Kakhovka dam and associated reservoir, which are essential for fresh water and irrigation for southern Ukraine, lie in the Kherson region that Moscow illegally annexed in September — and parts of which Russian forces have occupied for the past year.
Ukrainian officials say the floodwaters in Kherson are beginning to drop, but evacuations continue on streets submerged with dirty water that contains everything from oil to animal carcasses.
The reservoir is also critical for water supplies to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the destruction of the dam was an “attack” and an “atrocious act,” without saying who is to blame. Paris said it was rushing aid including water purifiers, 500,000 water purification tablets and hygiene kits to help people displaced by the disaster.
Impact on crops
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry on Thursday warned that several million tonnes of crops could be lost due to flooding caused by the destruction of the dam.
Vegetables, melons, grains and oilseeds were the main products grown on the affected land, the ministry said.
“Without a source of water supply, it is impossible to grow vegetables. Grain and oilseeds will be grown using an extensive model with low yields,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the breach would flood tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land in southern Ukraine and could turn at least 500,000 hectares of land left without irrigation into “deserts.” The flooded land would require a full agro-ecological assessment of the soil condition and, in most cases, special soil restoration methods would need to be applied, the ministry said.
Deadly overnight shelling reported in Donetsk
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of purposely destroying the dam, which is located in an area controlled by Russian forces.
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, backed the Russian claim that Ukraine blew up the dam to distract attention from what it described as a botched Ukrainian attempt to launch a counteroffensive.
Meanwhile, Russian shelling overnight into Thursday killed three people, including a four-year-old boy, in the town of Ukrainsk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the regional governor said, according to a Reuters report.
Five people, including three children, were also wounded in the same attack, and two were wounded in attacks elsewhere in the region, Gov. Pavlo Kirilenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters was unable to verify the report.
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