The flood water receding caused by the destruction, on June 6, of a dam in Ukraine is revealing the magnitude of the tragedy in the zone occupied by the Russian forces, where Neighbors denounce looting and urgently bury the drowned appearing in flooded areas.
“There are many drowned, the morgues are full,” says a neighbor from one of the most affected towns about the reality left behind by the flood.
“Today there has been 67 funerals“, and “there will be more deaths as the water continues to decrease,” explains this woman who asks to remain anonymous in the face of possible reprisals from the Russian occupation authorities, which according to the authorities and various Ukrainian NGOs are doing everything possible to hide the magnitude of the disaster.
The testimony of this resident of the part of the province of Kherson occupied by the Russian forces is one of the dozens of complaints collected by the activist Diana Dereveanco, whose civic organization, Progressive Community, works from Moldova toto help Ukrainian refugees and document Russian war crimes.
Disaster in the occupied zone
Due to its lower altitude, the eastern margin of the Dnieper river as it passes through the province of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, it has been more affected than the right bank. In addition to orographic conditions, the eastern bank of the Dnieper has another disadvantage over the other bank of the river.
Kherson province east of the Dnieper is occupied by Russian forces who, Kiev says, intentionally blew up the dam to hinder a possible Ukrainian offensive in the area.
While the Ukrainian government has organized extensive rescue operations on the western bank that it controls, which functioned even under Russian bombing, the neighbors on the eastern bank denounce the abandonment of some occupation authorities that have prevented the volunteers from working and are carrying out looting.
The NGO Human Rights Watch has published this week the testimony of a woman from the town of Oleshki, one of those who were submerged under water, who denounces the blockade imposed by the Russian forces after the disaster.
According to the woman, the occupation authorities prohibited entrances and exits to the town, preventing those who tried to leave by car when the water level still allowed it and going so far as to shoot into the air to dissuade volunteers from other areas who they were going to help two days after the catastrophe.
TVs, generators and boats
Both the Ukrainian and NGO authorities as well as the Diana Dereveancothe activist who denounces the atrocities of the Russian invasion from Moldovahave reported systematic looting in the areas affected by the flood.
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian army, the Russian forces send empty trucks that are presented as humanitarian aid transports to later load them with furniture, electronic equipment and other goods that the Russian military would be stealing from the houses in the evicted towns.
Testimonials collected by Dereveanco confirm these allegations and describe the apparent Russian eagerness for the still functional electronic equipment that they find in the evacuated houses.
Before the rescue efforts could even begin, say some of these voices, Russian soldiers stole from some houses the boats and generators they would need to save themselves or help their neighbors.
An irreversible natural catastrophe
In addition to the human drama, the blowing up of the dam has caused a natural catastrophe that is irreversible in many ways. “The Russian occupation is causing extreme suffering at many levels that overlap and aggravate each other,” he told Efe. Anastasia Pavlenkofrom Extinction Rebellion Ukraine.
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The international group activist of environmental action warns that “polluted water flows through Ukrainian cities and towns into the Black Sea, killing all the plants and animals in its path.”
“We have before us a global catastrophe,” says Pavlenko, who Demands a more forceful reaction from the international community before this “ecocide”.