Ukraine evacuates more than 1,500 people from flooded Kherson areas
Some 1,548 people had been evacuated from Ukrainian controlled flooded areas of the Kherson region by 11:30 a.m. local time, the State Emergency Services and National Police of Ukraine confirmed Wednesday.
Thousands have been evacuated and there are fears of an ecological catastrophe after the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant collapsed on Tuesday.
Authorities added in a post on Telegram that "20 settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River and more than 1,900 houses were flooded in Kherson region."
The operation to save people has involved 1,700 workers, 300 pieces of equipment and 33 water vessels.
One of the pieces of equipment used in the rescue was the "Bohun" all terrain vehicle that can move freely through water and mud.
Some context: Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the dam’s destruction, without providing concrete proof that the other is culpable. It is not yet clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, said Russia bears “criminal liability” and Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the dam incident as a case of “ecocide.”
Concerns are now turning to the dangers to wildlife, farmlands, settlements and water supplies from the floodwaters and possible contamination from industrial chemicals and oil leaked from the hydropower plant into the Dnipro River.
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