Amid his lambasting of the international community for a perceived lack of aid in the wake of the Kakhovka dam collapse, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian soldiers have shot at rescuers trying to help civilians in heavily flooded areas.
“When our forces try to get them [civilians] out, they are shot at by occupiers from a distance,” Zelensky told the German newspaper Bild. “As soon as our helpers try to rescue them, they are shot at. We won’t be able to see all the consequences until a few days from now, when the water has trickled down a bit.”
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“People, animals have died. From the roofs of the flooded houses, people see drowned people floating by. You can see that on the other side. It is very difficult to get people out of the occupied part of Kherson region,” Zelensky added.
The destruction of the dam in Russian-occupied territory on Tuesday was the latest event in the war that caught analysts, officials, and even world leaders off guard. Both Russia and Ukraine have pointed fingers at each other for the damage, but it is unclear how the inundation of dozens of towns and cities would benefit Ukraine.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. Satellite photos illustrate the extent of the flooding in some parts of southern Ukraine.
Neither country has provided concrete proof that the other was responsible for the dam’s destruction, and it remains possible that the dam collapsed due to a structural failure, possibly exacerbated by fighting since the war began in February 2022.
For Zelensky, it appears too soon to completely assess how the dam’s destruction will affect the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and even if he did know, he has already stated that he could not say in too much detail. But much like the insurgencies by self-proclaimed Russian separatists in Belgorod, Russia, distracted Russian resources from Ukraine, the dam’s crumbling appears to be diverting attention away from Ukraine’s priority: retaking the land seized by Russia.
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As rescue efforts continue, it will likely be weeks, if not longer, before the full effects of the Kakhovka dam’s destruction are known, and longer still as to how the humanitarian and ecological disaster affects Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
