The Ukrainian and Russian occupation authorities accuse each other Thursday, June 8 of deadly strikes in southern Ukraine, targeting civilians, including evacuees from areas flooded by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Kherson region, where more than 600 km2 have been flooded according to kyiv, to provide support to affected civilians. At this stage, the Ukrainian and Russian occupation authorities have identified six deaths in the floods.
But despite the evacuation of civilians in distress, the shelling continued.
Russian strike kills in flood-hit Kherson
Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine have accused Kyiv of killing two people, including a 33-year-old pregnant woman, when they bombed an evacuation point in Golan Pristan on Thursday, where relief workers installed by Moscow are helping civilians leave. flooded areas.
A Ukrainian army official for his part reported Russian artillery bombardments on the center of the city of Kherson, hit by major floods, which left several dead and injured.
The shelling comes as Volodymyr Zelensky was in Kherson Thursday to talk to officials and civilians at an evacuation point. The President praised the work of Ukrainian rescuers. “Our task is to protect lives and help people as much as possible. I thank the rescuers and the volunteers!”, He greeted on social networks. In a video accompanying his message, we can see him interacting with officials, visibly moved.
The president said he held a “coordination meeting” on “the operational situation in the region” and “the evacuation of the population from potentially flood-prone areas”. He promised “compensation” for “residents affected by the disaster” and “a program to compensate for losses or relocate businesses to the region”.
20,000 people without electricity
According to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin, “six hundred square kilometers are flooded in the Kherson region. 32% are on the right bank” of the river controlled by the Ukrainians, and “68% on the left bank”, occupied by the Russians.
According to the administration of the region, 2,198 people were evacuated. Many other people fled on their own. The emergency services explained that, on the Ukrainian side of the river, “20 localities and 2,629 houses” had been flooded.
On the Russian side, 4,500 people “have already been evacuated”, according to the occupation authorities, and “five people […] died by drowning”, according to Vladimir Leontiev, the mayor of the city of Nova Kakhovka, installed by Russia.
More than 20,000 consumers are still without electricity, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy.
Zaporizhia: the dam’s water reservoir is no longer sufficient to cool the plant’s reactors
The minister, German Galushchenko, said that the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, cooled by water from the Dnieper, presented “no imminent risk at this stage” but required to be “monitored”.
However, the level of the dam’s water reservoir, “below the critical threshold of 12.7 meters”, is no longer sufficient to supply “the basins of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant” for cooling operations, explained the boss. of the Ukrainian operator Ukrhydroenergo Igor Syrota.
Ukraine asks Europe for more electricity
Ukraine asks Europe to “significantly increase” its electricity deliveries after Russian attacks “on the country’s energy infrastructure” and the destruction of the Kakhovka dam which caused massive flooding, said the Ukrainian minister Energy German Galouchchenko this Thursday in an interview with AFP.
“We are asking Europe to increase” the electricity import ceiling to bring it to 2 gigawatts instead of the current one gigawatt, he said, also ensuring that the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant does not presented “no imminent risk at this stage” but required to be “monitored”.
Of the 600 square kilometers affected by the flood that followed the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, “up to 80 localities could be destroyed”, “20,000 homes are without electricity”, and ” at least 10,000 hectares of agricultural land” damaged, listed the minister, citing “preliminary figures”. He was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Versailles of the International Energy Agency (IEA) devoted to energy policies in the world.
Macron sends aid to Ukraine
“France condemns this heinous act which endangers populations,” the French president said on Twitter on Wednesday evening after a telephone interview with his Ukrainian counterpart. “I was able to tell President Zelensky my solidarity with his people after the attack on the Kakhovka dam,” he added.
The Crisis Center of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs will transport around ten tonnes of emergency humanitarian equipment and goods, the Quai d’Orsay said shortly after in a press release.
The aid includes in particular “water purifiers, family hygiene kits, 500,000 water purification tablets and several storage tanks”, specifies the Quai.
Ukraine attacked the dam with artillery, says Russia before the ICJ
Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of destroying the dam with “massive” artillery strikes, rejecting claims by Kiev that Moscow is responsible.
“The kyiv regime not only launched massive artillery attacks against the dam […] but he also deliberately raised the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir to a critical level,” said Russian diplomat Alexander Shulgin.
UK is cautious
The United Kingdom was cautious about the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, declaring Wednesday through the voice of its Minister of Foreign Affairs to wait “all the elements (of information) available” after having denounced the day before a “war crime
“We will not speak out until we have all the (information) elements available. So we will err on the side of caution on this story,” James Cleverly said in an interview with AFP on the sidelines. a meeting at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.