People have lost their homes and face the risk of disease outbreaks due to the floods.

Ukraine says the "great flood" will leave hundreds of thousands without drinking water, submerge tens of thousands of hectares of farmland , and turn at least 500,000 hectares of land upstream of the Dnipro River into a "desert" due to lack of irrigation.

Floods in Ukraine cause people to lose their homes and face the risk of disease outbreaks (Figure 1). — Tens of thousands of people remaining on both sides of the front lines in Kherson now face the added threat of flooding due to the destruction of a hydroelectric dam. Photo: Reuters

In flooded areas, people had to wade through submerged roads, carrying children on their shoulders and their belongings in plastic bags. Rescue workers used rubber boats to search for victims in areas where the water level rose above head height.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that it was impossible to predict how many people would die in the flooded areas, and called for a "clear and swift response from the world " to support the victims.

The Nova Kakhovka dam collapse on Tuesday occurred as Ukraine prepared for a major counterattack in its conflict with Russia. Both sides blamed each other for the incident. Kyiv said its troops had counterattacked in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut. Russia said it had thwarted the attack.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, said the ongoing attacks were still localized and a full-scale offensive had not yet begun. "When we start, people will know about it, they will see it," he said.

Kyiv said several months ago that Russian forces had controlled the dam from the beginning of the war and may have blown it up in an attempt to prevent Ukrainian forces from crossing the Dnipro River during the counteroffensive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of destroying the dam at the suggestion of the West, calling it a "war crime" that escalates the conflict. Putin described the incident as an "environmental and humanitarian disaster," according to a Kremlin statement.

Currently, no side has publicly presented evidence proving who is responsible. Meanwhile, some experts suggest the dam may have collapsed due to the impact of the fighting and a lack of maintenance.

Floods in Ukraine cause people to lose their homes and face the risk of disease outbreaks (Figure 2). — Satellite imagery from June 7 shows floodwaters spreading across areas on both sides of the Dnipro River in Kherson, Ukraine. Graphic: Reuters/Copernicus

Russian forces have imposed a state of emergency in areas of Kherson province under their control, where many towns and villages are located in the exposed lowlands below the dam. In the town of Nova Kakhovka next to the dam, brown water has submerged the main neighborhoods and is virtually uninhabited.

The Russian news agency TASS quoted Mayor Vladimir Leontyev as saying that more than 30,000 cubic meters of water are gushing out of the dam's reservoir every second, and the town is at risk of pollution from the floodwaters.

Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he was "shocked" by what he called the lack of aid from the United Nations and the Red Cross to the victims of the disaster so far. Shortly afterward, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that "within the next few hours we will send aid to meet the immediate needs."

The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs said a team was on hand in Kherson to coordinate relief efforts. Access to drinking water is a major concern, and around 12,000 bottles of water and 10,000 water filters have been distributed to residents so far.

Hoang Anh (according to TASS, Reuters)

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