Occupied Oleshky is flooded by 90%, Russians do not allow residents to evacuate

Oleshky Mayor Yevhen Ryschuk reported this in an interview with Ukrainske Radio. 

Houses in Oleshky are almost completely flooded, with water reaching the roofs. The water level in the streets is as high as three meters, while in the low-lying areas of the city, it has risen to four meters.

According to the mayor, Oleshky is approximately 90% flooded, leaving very little dry land in the city. The water is still rising, but since the water level has started to decrease in Nova Kakhovka, it is expected to also decrease in Oleshky within a day or two.

The mayor claims that the occupying authorities are not taking any action to evacuate the population and are preventing local residents who want to leave on their own from doing so.

“People have been stranded on rooftops since last night. The Russians, upon their arrival, confiscated all watercraft owned by the population, making it difficult to find boats. Although people have managed to find a few boats, they lack oars and have resorted to rowing with shovels. They are helping each other, but this is not the kind of assistance that should be provided in such emergency situations,” he said. 

After the occupation, only about 20% of the residents, approximately 8,000 people, remained in the community. The Oleshky community includes a total of 12 villages, and before the occupation, the population was around 40,000 people. Additionally, due to the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP, some settlements in the Kherson region are completely flooded.

“As of the evening of June 7, there are settlements in the region that are completely flooded (100%), some are partially flooded (10%), and others further from the river remain unaffected. Podstepne and Pishchanivka are flooded by about 50%, while Kozachi Lageri, particularly the coastal area and the houses located there, are experiencing a 10% flood,” he said. 

The situation in the south of Ukraine after the Kakhovka dam explosion 

On June 6, occupying Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka HPP, completely destroying it.  Evacuation efforts have begun to move residents away from the flooded areas. After that, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy convened an emergency meeting of the Security and Defense Council, and the world began to respond to the tragedy.  Follow the detailed course of events here.

Ukraine’s government allocated UAH 1.5 billion for the construction of two new water supply systems. These systems will help provide drinking water to Kryvyi Rih, Nikopol, and Marganets. Additionally, almost UAH 846 million has been provided to ensure the drinking water needs of the Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

According to initial estimates by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, approximately 10,000 hectares of agricultural land on the right bank will be flooded due to the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP.

On June 7, the Ministry of Health warned of the potential outbreak of cholera and the risk of botulism resulting from the explosion of the HPP. They advised Ukrainians to consume only imported or bottled water and provided other recommendations to reduce the risk of infectious diseases.

By 3:00 p.m. on June 7, a total of 1,752 people, including 103 children, had been evacuated to safer locations in the Kherson region.

Flooding was reported in four districts of Mykolaiv on Tuesday evening. The water level rose by 82 cm, leading to the destruction and flooding of bridges and gardens in the region.

Furthermore, the only state sturgeon farm in Ukraine has been flooded, and the road to the temporarily occupied Kinburn Peninsula in the Mykolaiv region is completely submerged.

In contrast, as of 8:00 p.m., 196 residential buildings were flooded in the temporarily occupied Hola Prystan, with the water level still rising. However, the Ukrainian police successfully rescued a woman and children who were trapped in a flooded house in occupied Oleshky.

The flooding in the Kherson region has already resulted in the loss of lives. The mayor of Oleshky, Yevhen Ryschuk, reported three fatalities in the city due to the floods.