Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visited the flood-stricken city of Kherson Thursday amid rescue efforts following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River earlier this week.
The dam's destruction early Tuesday sent a torrent of water from the upstream reservoir down the river into the recently recaptured city. The Dnipro, acting as the borderline between Ukrainian- and Russian-controlled areas in the southern front of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, also flooded several downstream settlements in the Kherson oblast.
"I visited a crossing point where people are being evacuated from flooded areas," Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram as a sign of gratitude towards rescue workers. "Our task is to protect lives and help people as much as possible."
Zelensky also called for "a clear and quick global response," criticizing international agencies for not being "capable of taking action." "Every death over there marks an indictment of the existing international mosaic, of international organizations which have gotten out of the habit of saving lives," he added.
Kherson Residents Yet to Be Rescued from Floods, Russian Shelling
Ukrainian rescue teams have been struggling to reach families trapped in their homes after the flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.
According to a report by the independent Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske, people from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky are yet to be rescued due to the flooding. "No one is coming to save them because the Russians abandoned them," Butsko told the BBC, "and the Ukrainians can't reach the area because it's very dangerous and controlled by the Russians."
Back in Kherson, Russian forces have been shelling close to the extraction point just hours after Zelensky visited the city. Hundreds of people scrambled for cover as the shells fell near an evacuation point at Ship Square, in the heart of the city.
"The shelling began precisely during the evacuation of citizens whose homes were flooded," the Ukrainian interior ministry said in a statement.
Updates on Zaporizhzhya
Meanwhile, the Russians have claimed they repelled a Ukrainian offensive in the Zaporizhzhya region.
According to Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu, Russian forces halted the attack of a 1,500-strong Ukrainian force in the Zaporizhzhya oblast. "Today at 1:30 am (22:30 UTC)...there was an attempt to break through our defenses," he said, "the enemy was stopped and retreated after heavy losses."
As for the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, which is dependent on the Dnipro reservoir created by the Kakhovka Dam to cool its reactors, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Mariano Grossi said they would continue to carefully monitor the status of the plant as the reservoir rapidly recedes.
"The level of water [is], of course, decreasing quite rapidly," he told CNN. "The flux of water is unimpeded, and this is having an automatic impact on the amount of water that the nuclear power plant has to be integrated into the cooling system of the plant." Grossi added the estimated water level decrease is currently "between 5cm and 7cm per hour."
He also announced he would return to Zaporizhzhya next week with a team of nuclear safety experts from the IAEA "to have a more comprehensive assessment" of the plant's status.