Catastrophe in Kherson

Ukraine’s rescue operations and the aftermath of the Kakhovka dam disaster. In photos.

Since the Kakhovka dam collapsed on June 6, Ukraine has been working to rescue residents from flooded parts of Ukraine’s Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. More than 70 settlements and thousands of homes are estimated to be located downstream from the Kakhovka HPP. Thousands of local residents have already been evacuated. According to reports by both the Ukrainian authorities and the Russian occupation authorities, at least 13 people have died in the flooding. Volunteers who have evacuated residents from Russian-occupied territory estimate that the number of dead is actually much higher. The dam breach has also caused an ecological catastrophe, which could lead to (or may have already led to) a mass death of animals.