Russia bombs rescue workers and civilians in flood zone

At least seven people are missing, feared drowned, but the death toll from the dam breach is expected to rise.

Ukrainian police ferry locals to safety after the Nova Kakhovka dam was breached, leaving tens of thousands stranded. Picture: Reuters

Russian forces shelled civilians and rescue workers in areas flooded by the destruction of a vast hydroelectric dam on Wednesday as accounts emerged of Kremlin military manoeuvres in the region days before the dam was breached.

Rescue workers in Kherson, southern Ukraine, said the city was shelled overnight and in the morning by Russian artillery on the east bank of the Dnipro River, even as evacuation efforts were under way.

Almost 6000 people have so far been evacuated from flooded areas on both the Russian and Ukrainian-controlled sides of the river out of an estimated 60,000 who live in the affected area. Russian-appointed authorities in the occupied parts of the Kherson ­region reported 15,000 homes were flooded, while hundreds of thousands were deprived of clean drinking water.

At least seven people are missing, feared drowned, but the death toll was expected to rise as local hospitals were said to be crowded with casualties and many remained trapped in the flood zone.

Ukraine’s military said Russian troops had begun retreating from riverfront positions days ­before what Kyiv says was a Russian attack on the dam using ­explosives planted in the engine room of the hydroelectric plant. “They are pulling back their units,” Natalia Gumenyuk, a military spokeswoman, told Ukrain­ian national television. “They began their movement a few days before this terrorist attack.”

The apparent Russian retreat from the eastern riverbank left thousands of civilians without any rescue assistance, forcing them to turn to Telegram channels to plead for assistance.

Anya, a mother of three who remained in Kherson to assist rescue efforts, alerted rescuers of the plight of people trapped on the eastern side and abandoned by Russian authorities. “They told me the Russian soldiers had left positions and fled,” she said. “All the flooded areas are out of Russian control and the Russians have moved deeper to the occupied territories.”

Drone footage showed Russian troops on the eastern side abandoning their positions and wading through water to reach higher ground.

Their retreat allowed Ukrain­ian rescuers to launch daring missions across the Dnipro River to Oleshky to extract people ­stranded on the Russian side. “They were sitting on their roofs waiting to be picked up.” Anya said. “No one there helped them.”

Drone footage showed people on the eastern side of Dnipro clinging to the rooftops of submerged buildings and clinging to trees, trying to attract rescuers’ ­attention. In one, a couple were seeing praying and waving for help from a skylight in their roof.

Some posted their addresses online and pleaded for help. “The water has reached the roof, there is nowhere else to go, they will drown,” one post on Telegram read. “Help, my family is in there.”

Evacuees from Russia-controlled areas were reportedly being checked against Ukrainian police records at special centres on the west bank.

Russian-installed authorities said they evacuated 4000 people in an area where at least 22,000 people live. About 1900 evacuated on the Ukrainian side where the population was reportedly around 42,000, much depleted after 15 months of war.

Some appealing for help in ­occupied Ukraine said they were unable to leave because Russian soldiers had taken away their boats days before the dam was blown up, mirroring their actions when they retreated from the western side of the river last ­November.

Rescue workers in Kherson city, held by Ukraine, said Russian forces had bombarded the ­regional capital overnight from artillery positions several kilo­metres back from the river.

Slava, a resident of Ostriv, the city’s worst-affected area, said the same room in his neighbour’s apartment was hit twice by Russian shelling overnight. The shelling resumed in the morning, complicating rescue efforts.

“There were five blasts in the 10-floor block of flats where we are staying,” Oleksandr Prok­opiev, a volunteer rescue worker, told The Times. “But we will continue to work.”

All water, gas and electricity supplies had been shut down by the Ukrainian authorities, forcing more to leave.

Kyiv and Moscow have ­accused each other of damaging the dam – claims they both deny.

THE TIMES