Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that international relief organizations should take immediate action to face the repercussions of the destruction of a hydroelectric dam in Ukraine.
“It is imperative that international organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, immediately participate in the rescue operation and help people in the occupied part of the Kherson region,” Zelensky said in his video daily speech.
He added: If an international organization is not present in the disaster area, this means that it does not exist at all or does not have competence.
The Ukrainian president pointed out that “the population in areas occupied by Russian forces in southern Ukraine do not have water, food or medical services, and it is impossible to determine the number of people who may die in those areas.”
Flood waters flooded a vast area of southern Ukraine on Wednesday, as a result of the destruction of the huge Kakhovka Dam on the front line between the Russian and Ukrainian forces, which blame each other for that.
Residents took to the streets, which were flooded with water, carrying their children on their shoulders and belongings in plastic bags, while rescuers used rubber boats to comb areas where the water level rose by about two meters.
Ukraine said the floods would deprive hundreds of thousands of people of drinking water and submerge tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land.
The disaster of the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse coincides with an imminent counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces and is seen as the next major phase of the war.
The two sides exchanged accusations of continuing the shelling in the flooded area and warned against the erosion of landmines that floated to the surface due to the floods.
Russia imposed a state of emergency in parts of the Kherson region it controls and where many towns and villages lie in the lowlands below the dam.
The authorities have evacuated 2,000 people so far from the Ukrainian-controlled part of the flood zone, and the water level has reached its highest level in 17 residential areas with 16,000 people.
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2023-06-08 00:57:56
