2023-06-09 05:39:13
Aid crews are racing to rescue people trapped in an area flooded by the Dnieper River, which has forced thousands to flee. As I exchanged Ukraine Russia accused Thursday of bombing aid workers and evacuees in the Kherson region, which is experiencing floods, while Moscow announced that its forces had repelled a Ukrainian attack in another axis of the front line.
And on Tuesday, the Kakhovka Dam, which is located in an area controlled by Russian forces, was destroyed on Tuesday, and the areas flooded with its waters on Thursday amounted to 600 square kilometers.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Kherson region, which has been experiencing floods since Tuesday. Dozens of villages and parts of the regional capital, Kherson, were flooded.
Zelensky, who visited survivors in hospital, tweeted: “Thank you to the rescuers and volunteers! Thank you to everyone who took part in this work!”
Shortly following the visit, Kiev reported a Russian strike that targeted the center of Kherson, leaving nine wounded, including a policeman and two employees of the emergency services.
For its part, the authorities established by Moscow on the other bank of the Dnieper River, which is controlled by Russian forces, announced the killing of two evacuees in a Ukrainian bombing.
Six people died as a result of the floods. The Moscow-backed administration in Nova Kakhovka, where the dam is located, announced on social media that five people had been killed and 41 people had been hospitalized.
In turn, the Ukrainian police announced the death of a person in a village located on the banks of the river in the neighboring Mykolaiv region, which was also affected by the high water level.
In this context, US President Joe Biden said that Washington will, in the long term, provide military aid to Kiev “as long as it is required,” while the Netherlands announced that it was in the process of sending relief boats and water pumps.
The battle lasted two hours
Russia announced Thursday that it had repelled an attack by Ukrainian forces, in which 1,500 soldiers participated, in the southern Zaporizhia region, following a two-hour battle.
“Today at 1:30 am (2230 GMT) in the Zaporizhia region … an attempt was made to break through our defenses,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, adding, “The enemy was stopped and retreated following heavy losses.” He pointed out that the Ukrainian forces used 150 armored vehicles in their attack.
Ukrainian officials said that their forces are ready to launch an upcoming counterattack, but there will be no official announcement of the timing of its launch.
In this context, Sweden announced Thursday that it had trained Ukrainian forces to use CV-90 armored vehicles. She indicated that she had provided Ukraine with 50 of these armored vehicles, stressing that the forces that trained her were “ready for the front.”
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Gana Malyar confirmed that Russia was conducting “defensive operations” near the town of Orekhiv in the Zaporizhia region.
And the company operating the Kakhovka Dam announced that the reservoir created by the dam in southern Ukraine might no longer provide water to cool the reactors of the Zaporizhya Nuclear Power Plant, following its water level dropped to “below 12.7 meters.”
This means that the reservoir is no longer able to supply the population and its water cannot be used to cool the reactors of the Zaporizhya Nuclear Power Plant, the largest of its kind in Europe.
But the IAEA announced Thursday evening that the Zaporizhya power plant is still receiving water from the Kakhovka Dam reserve to cool the fuel.
The plant’s six nuclear reactors have been shut down but still require cooling to avert a nuclear catastrophe. Simultaneously, Ukraine asked Europe to double energy supplies to two gigawatts.
Diplomatically, South Africa expressed Thursday its openness to hosting Russian-Ukrainian talks, when the Russian president received an African peace mission seeking to put an end to the conflict.
And last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Putin and Zelensky had agreed to receive the six-member delegation that would visit Kiev and Moscow.
In the Kherson region, Ukrainian medics said they are entering Russian-controlled areas to rescue civilians despite the risks.
The region is the mouth of the Dnieper River and has several islands and swamps, which sometimes complicates the exact location of the front line.
And the Ukrainian authorities confirmed that 30 residential neighborhoods were flooded, ten of which are located in areas controlled by Russia on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. Aid workers used boats and amphibious vehicles to help those stranded in flooded areas.
Tetyana Omelchenko, 65, said she waited two days before being evicted from her apartment block and had to climb out through a smashed window to reach a rescue boat. “In the building where I live, the water has reached the third floor and there are still people inside,” she explained.
environmental extermination
In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged members of the bloc to speed up the provision of humanitarian aid to Ukraine following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. For its part, the World Health Organization stressed the seriousness of the situation.
The Director-General of the organization, Tedras Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed that the serious repercussions of the destruction of the dam on “the water supply, sewage systems and public health services in the region should not be underestimated.”
He said the organization was quick to help authorities and healthcare staff “take preventive measures once morest waterborne diseases and improve disease surveillance”.
Ukraine accuses Russia, whose forces control the dam area, of blowing it up, while Russia accuses Ukraine of bombing it with artillery.
On Thursday, the “Okrhydroenergo” company, which operates the Kakhovka Dam, suggested that the dam had been mined from the inside.
Emergency services warned that the flood waters washed away landmines, posing a danger to civilians.
For its part, the Ukrainian government sounded the alarm regarding the repercussions on the environment and considered it “environmental genocide”.
Greenpeace activist in Kiev Denis Tsotsaev warned that some species of animals may need a decade to overcome the catastrophe, and some may not overcome it at all.
According to the latest information, “at least 500 tons of motor oil has leaked due to the destruction of the dam,” according to the activist, which poses a threat to birds and mammals.
France 24/AFP
1686291848
#Rescue #survivors #continues #flooded #Kherson #mutual #accusations #Kiev #Moscow