President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with a journalist from the Axel Springer publishing house that many residents died as a result of flooding on the occupied left bank of the Dnieper. “From the rooftops of the flooded houses, people see the bodies of the drowned floating by. You can see it from the other side [of the river]. It is very difficult to take people out of the occupied part of the Kherson region,” Zelensky said.
According to him, Ukrainian rescuers are trying to help residents of the occupied regions, but the Russian military is shooting at them. As the president noted, he had long warned Western partners that the Russians could blow up the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.
Updated: Five residents of the Kherson region died as a result of flooding, Vladimir Leontiev, the Russian-appointed "head" of Novaya Kakhovka, told Interfax.
The mayor of the occupied Oleshek, Yevhen Ryshchuk, told Suspilny that he knew of at least three dead. “I think there will be many more,” the mayor added.
According to him, on the evening of June 7, the Russian military began to evacuate residents from the roofs of flooded houses. Ryshchuk said that residents gather in the hospital, there is a house of culture and a bomb shelter nearby, but no one is allowed there. The day before, a local volunteer told The Insider that only the center, where the city hospital is located, was not flooded in Oleshky.
As a result of the dam break and the destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station on June 6, thousands of houses on both banks of the Dnieper were flooded. According to the Ukrainian authorities, 80 settlements were in the flood zone.
