Rising floodwaters force more Ukrainians from homes

Floodwaters are rising further in the areas around the collapsed dam in Southern Ukraine, forcing more to flee their homes and leaving authorities scrambling to deliver drinking water to residents while figuring out where to resettle them in the long term.

Official tallies indicate more than 2,700 people have fled their homes in the day since the collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam and reservoir, which provides essential drinking and irrigation water to a significant part of Southern Ukraine, including Crimea.

The dam is situated along the Dnipro River, in an area in the Kherson region that Russia now controls and that makes up part of the front line in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Russia controls the eastern side of the river, while Ukraine holds the western bank.

Communities of people are fleeing their homes, with footage showing some carrying children on their shoulders and others waiting on roofs to avoid the flooding.

It remains unclear what the extent of the damage will be and what the cause of the collapse was. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of orchestrating the attack, while Russia has denied those claims. 

“The whole world knows about this Russian war crime, the crime of ecocide — the deliberate destruction of the dam and other structures of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant by the Russian occupiers. In fact, Russian terrorists have detonated an environmental bomb of mass destruction. For the sake of their own security, the world should now show that Russia will not get away with such terror,” Zelensky tweeted, accusing Russia of planning the attack. 

Some experts say the cause of the reservoir’s collapse could have been natural neglect due to the attention that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demanded for more than a year. Others, however, including the Institute for the Study of War, said Russia has “a greater and clearer interest in flooding the lower Dnipro despite the damage to their own prepared defensive positions.”

Zelensky has said he is working with officials to make sure supplies are delivered, but he is unable to help those living on the Russian-occupied side of the river, which has been affected by the flooding too. 

The collapse of the dam comes as Ukraine readies for an imminent counteroffensive against Russia, in what is seen as a high-stakes pivotal moment in the war.