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Entire villages and thousands of homes are flooded in the Kherson region. Often only the roofs protrude, according to drone images from the crisis area. Thousands can be brought to safety, but many cannot let go. “Many residents are in shock, they think that if the water is gone, everything will be fine. But that is not possible,” says helper Vlad Pojanskyj of the Ukrainian aid organization Vostok SOS.
“It is the most difficult thing to convince people that all is lost, that they have to give up their belongings,” the 33-year-old said in a video interview with the German news agency. Pojanskyj is part of the evacuation team in Kherson. The tidal wave there is more than five meters high on Friday.
After the Russian troops invaded, the people survived the occupation, were happy to retreat – and now have to watch their lives sink in the floods. “The shelling continues. They shoot all the time while we try to get people to safety. They just want to add to the chaos,” Pojanskyj says of the Russians. From Kherson, the occupiers are on the other side of the river.
“We receive many calls for help from the occupied territory, but there is nothing we can do. We are not soldiers,” he says sadly. On the right bank, which is under the control of Ukraine, the aid is going well and there are many volunteers.
But Pojanskyj expects that the real problems are yet to come. “There are an incredible amount of dead animals, so many dead dogs, the carcasses are everywhere. There will be plagues.” The situation is also dangerous for the residents due to the lack of drinking water, springs and wells are flooded. About 80 cities are located in the flooded area.
The organization Vostok SOS, for which Pojanskyj works, has just handed over four motorized inflatable boats, which can withstand the current, to civil protection. As a result, emergency services should be able to reach people trapped in the flood areas even faster.
Many hang on to their roofs. Vostok SOS works together with the German Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe. “I want to be honest, money helps us the most because here in Ukraine we can quickly get things we need,” said Pojanskyj, who praised Germany’s willingness to donate.
Yet relief supplies are also important, says the Kiev office manager of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe in Ukraine, Andrij Waskowycz, of the dpa. “Trucks with humanitarian aid from the Vostok SOS centers in Uzhgorod and Dnipro are already on their way to Mykolaiv, where evacuees are being temporarily housed,” explained Waskowycz. Food and hygiene items have been delivered since the start of the war, more than 15 months ago.
The Technical Assistance Service (THW) and the German Red Cross and other aid organizations are also active in disaster relief. But above all, the Kiev government is demanding that aid workers from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross be allowed access to the occupied territories.
There, many more people are affected by the consequences of the dam disaster. Ukrainian leaders accuse the occupiers of not only blowing up the dam, but also of abandoning the people.
In fact, the Russian side is downplaying the consequences since Tuesday’s destruction of the dam. State media in Moscow are reporting a “flood”, while Kiev speaks of the “biggest man-made environmental disaster” and compares the flooding to the use of a “tactical nuclear bomb”.
There are reports of at least eight dead and dozens injured on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River. “Unfortunately there are casualties, which is inevitable with a disaster of this magnitude,” says local crew chief Vladimir Saldo. So far, 5,800 people have been rescued. This cannot be verified independently.
Balance expects the water to rise further, possibly for days. More than 22,200 homes are already under water in 17 cities. The water is up to 12 meters high.
Given the dramatic visuals of the scene, it’s hard for many to believe that there won’t be many more victims in the end. Almost continuously, Russian state television shows images of rescuers lifting people on stretchers through knee-deep water or carrying them to safety in boats.
A newsreader happily reports that President Vladimir Putin – who, unlike his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelenskyy, does not want to travel to the flood area close to the front – “has the situation under control”. The Kremlin mainly controls the news flow in Russia. Independent information from the occupied territories hardly comes out.
Meanwhile, amateur videos are circulating on social networks, which are supposed to show how Ukrainian helpers deliver drinking water from the air to an abandoned family in the de facto Russian-occupied town of Oleschky and then rescue them with a boat. The media celebrates this as a sensation. A boy later happily hugs a Ukrainian soldier.
However, Ukrainian leaders complain that the majority of people from the occupied territory cannot flee to the Kiev-controlled regions.
The Russian newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, which is critical of the Kremlin and is in contact with residents of the occupied villages, reports thousands of calls for help in chat groups and people. “People are sitting on roofs, they are not being evacuated, boats are passing by,” says Sergei, a resident of Oleshky. There will also be no electricity, gas or water.
Ukrainian television shows Tamara, a resident of the Kiev-controlled village of Chornobaivka, standing knee-deep in water in her kitchen, desperate because she doesn’t know what to do next. She is convinced that the Russian troops have blown the dam: “I would tear this Putin into little pieces if they gave him to me.”
(SDA)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
