Zelenskyy accuses Russia of abandoning flood victims after dam blast

Kyiv/Moscow, June 7 (EFE).- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of abandoning tens of thousands of people living in occupied areas after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, with flooding expected to peak on Wednesday.

“At least 100 thousand people lived in these areas before the Russian invasion. Tens of thousands are still there,” Zelenskyy said on Twitter. “Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without normal access to drinking water.”

Zelenskyy said rescuers were deployed in Ukraine-controlled affected areas. “On the part occupied by Russia, the occupiers are not even trying to help people.”

Kyiv authorities warned that 42,000 people were at risk of dam flooding on both sides of the Dnipro River due to the dam destruction.

The latest British intelligence report warned the dam’s “structure is likely to deteriorate further over the next few days, causing additional flooding.”

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, 120 km away from the dam, “is highly unlikely to face immediate additional safety issues,” the UK intelligence report said.

Zelenskyy spoke with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Raffael Grossi to discuss ways to minimize risks to the nuclear power plant.

Grossi described the incident as a “crucial moment for nuclear safety.”

He said he would lead the next rotation of the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia next week with a reinforced team.

Flooding has also affected some 10,000 hectares of agricultural land on the western bank of the Dnipro River, Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said.

The flooded area is greater on the eastern river bank, where the New Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station was located.

But Ukrainian authorities cannot accurately assess the damage in Russian-occupied Kherson.

The ministry said some 31 irrigation systems in the Dnipro, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia provinces got damaged.

The affected irrigation systems provided water to over half a million hectares of agricultural land.

Russian-installed authorities have declared a state of emergency in annexed parts of the Kherson region.

Emergency services in the region reported some 2,700 houses in 15 settlements of the Kherson region were flooded, state-backed news agency TASS reported.

“According to the latest data, the water flooded about 2,700 houses in 15 settlements of the Kherson region. A total of 22,000 people lived there. Almost 1,300 people have been evacuated,” a source was quoted as saying on Taas.

According to the report, 40 temporary shelters with a capacity for 5,500 people had been set up.

At present, 345 civilians had been rehoused in the provisional shelters.

The Moscow-installed deputy governor for the Kherson region, Tatyana Kuzmich, said that around 1,300 people had been evacuated on the Russian-controlled side of the river.