Camped out on the roof overnight: what the evacuation of Kherson looks like
People are being evacuated from the city of Kherson due to the flooding caused by the Russians’ blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Source: Ukrainska Pravda correspondents from Kherson
Details: Korabelna Square is one of the evacuation points in Kherson. People are still being rescued there. About 30 people were collected from this meeting point early on 7 June.
Oleksandr, 58, who previously lived on Persha Rybna Street, said: "I’ve been up on the roof of the house with my wife since yesterday. It was flooded up to the roof."
У Херсоні триває евакуація людей із районів, які затопило через підрив росіянами Каховської ГЕС. Люди пересуваються на човнах та спецтехніці. Відео кореспондентів "Української правди" pic.twitter.com/eVN0kp4ypk
— Українська правда ✌️ (@ukrpravda_news) June 7, 2023
Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration, said over 1,500 people have been evacuated from this point alone in just two days.
Previously: On the night of 5-6 June, the Russian military blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, and in the evening of the same day, they shelled the Ostriv microdistrict in Kherson, where people were being evacuated due to flooding: two law enforcement officers were injured.
As of the morning of 7 June, 1,852 houses and about 10,000 hectares of agricultural land in the right-bank Kherson Oblast have already been flooded, while the damage on the occupied territories of the left bank is several times greater.
Background:
- Russian occupation forces seized the North Crimean Canal and the Kakhovka HPP, in Kherson Oblast, on the first day of the full-scale invasion, 24 February 2022.
- On 4 March 2022, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was seized by Russian troops. Subsequently, they turned it into a military base, blackmailing the world with a nuclear catastrophe.
- On the morning of 6 June, Ukraine’s Operational Command Pivden (South) reported that Russian occupation forces had blown up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP). The dam and the power plant's turbine hall were completely destroyed. The hydroelectric power plant is beyond repair. Preliminary forecasts indicate that the reservoir is expected to be drained within the next four days.
- The destruction of the Kakhovka HPP has caused an ecological disaster. Water from the reservoir has begun to flood towns and villages, and local residents are being evacuated from dangerous areas. The blowing up of the dam at the Kakhovka HPP has caused 150,000 tonnes of machine oil to spill into the River Dnipro, and there are problems with water supply in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Marhanets and Nikopol, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
- A week before the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was blown up, the Russian authorities authorised the non-investigation of accidents at high-risk facilities that occurred as a result of "military operations" and terrorist attacks.
- Early reports indicate that the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was blown up by the 205th Separate Cossack Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian armed forces
- The West was initially hesitant about who was responsible for the disaster, but both the US government and the media are now inclined to believe that Russia deliberately caused it. Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence has evidence that Russian occupation forces used explosives to blow up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.
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