2023-06-07 01:07:22
“A good Russian is a dead Russian”says Viktor, a resident of Kherson, the southern Ukrainian city who fears flooding after the partial destruction of a dam 80 kilometers away in a Russian-occupied area.
Russia and Ukraine they accuse each other of blowing up the dam of Nova Kajovka this Tuesday morning.
This infrastructure supplies water to the region and to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia, further south, but it also serves to cool the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, also occupied by the Russians.
For the inhabitants of Kherson, who were liberated from Russian occupation in November after a Ukrainian counter-offensive, if their city is now threatened by floodwaters there is only one culprit: Russia.
Flood
“The flood is right there, in front of our eyes. Nobody knows what can happen from now on. A good Russian is a dead Russian, I can’t say anything more,” Viktor says in Russian, wearing a cap and glasses, under a summer sun
He lives in a neighborhood on the banks of the Kocheva River, a tributary of the Dnieper where the water has risen two to three meters, according to several residents interviewed by an AFP journalist.
In this part you can see sheds and flooded garages and water in the alleys.
Liudmila has already loaded her washing machine and some personal belongings onto a trailer to take them to a higher area of the city.
He also expresses his hatred towards the Russian soldiers who occupy the other bank of the Dnieper, just opposite, from where they regularly bombard Kherson and its surroundings since they had to withdraw in November before the Ukrainian offensive.
According to the kyiv government, the Russian army blew up the dam in an attempt to “slow down” the next counter-offensive that the Ukrainian army has been preparing for months with the aim of retaking all the southern and eastern territories occupied by Russia.
“These orcs [un apodo ofensivo dado a los rusos] They must run away faster, you have to hunt them down! This is not a life! There were shots and now floods!” he exclaims, while artillery shots can be heard in the distance.
Sergii, another resident of the city, fears that the entire neighborhood will end up under water, although at the moment it is the buildings on the shore that are the most affected.“Everything is going to die here, the animals, the birds, everything”regrets.
The ocupation
“We spent nine months under occupation, and now we have been inundated by the occupiers,” says Iryna, who fears that the situation will worsen.
“We are afraid of what will happen tonight. We fear a greater catastrophe,” add this woman
Another resident, Svitlana, says she feels “even more hatred, more anger” towards Russia after this “shameful” act.
“We will have problems when all the water recedes. How will this be restored? How will we live here? I don’t know,” says the 56-year-old nurse.
“All living creatures and people will be flooded”, warns, while Ukraine and Russia fear an ecological catastrophe.
Swampy water has covered the roads and people in the locals are packing up their things before evacuating.
Cell phone in hand, she furiously demands that the Russian forces be “get out of here.” “Here, they shoot at us. There, they flood us,” she says.
AFP agency
PB
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