Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Kherson region that has been impacted by flooding after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. In a post to Telegram, Ukraine’s president said the main issues discussed during the visit were “The operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential flood zones, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organisation of life support for the flooded areas.”
In an address on Wednesday evening, Zelenskiy said it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied parts of Kherson due to the flooding, urging a “clear and rapid reaction from the world” to support victims. He also severely criticised the UN and the Red Cross who he said were not helping the relief effort. “Our military and special services are rescuing people as much as it is possible, despite the shelling. But large-scale efforts are needed,” he said. “We need international organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, to immediately join the rescue operation and help people in the occupied part of Kherson region.
About 230 square miles (600 sq km) of the Kherson region was under water on Thursday, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Prokudin said 68% of the flooded territory was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River. The average level of flooding in the Kherson region on Thursday morning was 5.61m (18.41ft), he said. He said almost 2,000 people had left flooded territory as of Thursday morning.
Five people have died due to flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station according to the Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Nova Kakhovka, the nearest settlement to the dam. Russian media has claimed that over 14,000 houses were flooded, and almost 4,300 people were evacuated in occupied Kherson, but the claims have not been independently verified.
Volodymyr Litvinov, the head of the Beryslav district administration in Kherson region, reported that there is a risk of flooding further inland, due to rising level of the Inhulets River, which feeds into the Dnipro.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that it will strengthen its presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant amid concerns over water supplies for cooling the plant’s reactors.
Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass reported that “missiles flew over Luhansk, several explosions were heard in the city”.
The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has issued a new statement about the situation with shelters in Ukraine’s capital, saying that the city’s council will warn the owners of private premises with shelters that if they are not properly maintained, or people are not admitted during an air raid, these premises may be seized from them. It follows the deaths last week of three people who were unable to get into a locked shelter and were then hit by falling debris from a Russian missile attack.
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had a telephone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during which he briefed Putin on the forthcoming African leaders’ peace mission to Russia and Ukraine, the South African presidency said.
US president Joe Biden is to welcome British prime minister Rishi Sunak for wide-ranging talks on Thursday as the British leader makes his first White House visit as premier. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the 15-Russian invasion of Ukraine will be “top of mind”.
A group of Nato countries may be willing to put troops on the ground in Ukraine if member states do not provide tangible security guarantees to Kyiv at the alliances’s summit in Vilnius, the former Nato secretary general Anders Rasmussen has said. Current Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance must discuss options for giving Ukraine security assurances for the time after its war with Russia.
