
Yurii, a former Ukrainian soldier, knows all too well about living in his rickety attic: It was here, during Russia’s eight-month occupation of the southern city of Kherson, that he hid to avoid capture by the invaders.
Now, the 51-year-old in fatigues is taking refuge again, after the latest big development in Russia’s war in Ukraine: A breach of the Kakhovka dam upstream on the Dnieper River that sent floodwaters gushing through his home and rising to the low edge of his corrugated metal roof.