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Shooting of evacuation points

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of contributing to the humanitarian catastrophe following the destruction of the dam. “Russian terrorists are trying to exacerbate the situation they created with their ecocide,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Thursday.

Russian troops fired on rescue workers and evacuation points, Zelenskyy said. Similar videos appeared in the media on Thursday. The Ukrainian head of state also accused Moscow of abandoning the people in the Russian-occupied part of the flooded southern Ukrainian region of Kherson. “There, the disaster is already spreading on the second day,” said Zelenskyj.

The Kremlin sends senior officials to inspect the crisis area

Unlike Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet visited the flooded areas, issuing public instructions to send aid to the region only two days after the dam burst. However, on Thursday, a senior Kremlin official inspected the crisis area along with the deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergey Kiriyenko.

“In order to objectively assess the situation, we (with Kiriyenko) drove to the flooded areas of Hola Prystan and Oleshky – this is where the situation is most tense,” said Andrei Alekseyenko, Kherson’s Moscow-appointed governor. on his telegram channel with. The attached videos show Kiriyenko inspecting the flooded area and speaking with an affected person. After the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, large parts of southern Ukraine are under water.

Kiriyenko, who briefly served as head of government in Moscow at the height of Russia’s financial crisis in 1998, is regarded as responsible for domestic policy in the presidential administration – and as a trustee for Ukraine’s occupied territories.

UN not in floodplains under Russian occupation

Meanwhile, the United Nations is trying to gain access to the flooded areas under Russian occupation after the dam broke in Ukraine. The UN emergency agency OCHA has so far been unable to confirm a UN mission in the region, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said in Geneva on Thursday. “We continue our principled efforts to reach the Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.”

According to Ukrainian information, the United Nations is ready to send relief teams quickly, but awaits Russian guarantees of access and security. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kiev announced this after a meeting between Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the UN system coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown. Kiev itself is ready to provide all security guarantees for humanitarian operations.

Dam burst: Selenskyj chairs drinking water supply crisis meeting

Zelenskyy also held an emergency meeting on the drinking water supply of the Dnepropetrovsk region after visiting the Kherson flood plain. There are problems with water supply in the towns of Kryvyi Rih, Marganets, Pokrov and Nikopol, the region’s military governor Serhiy Lysak said, according to a statement from the presidential office. Minister of Development and Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov presented a project for the construction of a new reservoir, which will partially enter the territory of the existing one. In his later video message, Selenskyj also addressed the drinking water problem. There may be inconveniences, but the supply of drinking water would be assured, the 45-year-old promised. “The decisions are there, the resources are there, the money is there.”

The water level in the Kachowka reservoir drops below the critical limit

A senior Ukrainian official had previously warned of a lack of water in the outflowing reservoir. “The level is already at 12.50 meters, which is below the dead center of 12.70 meters,” the head of the operator of the Ukrhidroenergo hydroelectric power station, Ihor Syrota, told Ukrainian television. This means that no more water can be taken to supply the surrounding villages with drinking water and to cool the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on the southern bank of the Kakhovka reservoir.

According to Syrota, the water level in the reservoir is dropping by about a meter every day. He estimates that this trend will continue for another week. If the dam is destroyed to the core, the level can drop to 3 meters. This means that the Dnipro returns to its original river bed before it was dammed.

What will be important on Friday

Aid deliveries from the Technical Relief Agency (THW) are expected in Ukraine. The supplies include drinking water filters and power generators. The battle on the front between Russian and Ukrainian troops continues. Recently, fighting in southern Ukraine had come to a head. Officially, Kiev has not yet confirmed the start of its own major offensive. However, media reports that Ukraine has launched an attack in several places. (sda/dpa)