#Ukrainians face homelessness, #disease #risk as #floods crest from burst #dam
#KHERSON (MNP) – #Ukrainians abandoned inundated homes on Wednesday as #floods crested across the #south after the #destruction of a huge #hydroelectric dam on front lines between #Russian and #Ukrainian forces, with their presidents #trading #blame for the #disaster.
Residents slogged through flooded streets carrying children on their shoulders, #dogs in their arms and belongings in plastic bags while rescuers used rubber boats to search areas where the waters reached above head height.
Ukraine said the deluge would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, swamp tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land and turn at least 500,000 hectares deprived of irrigation into “deserts”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address that it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied areas due to the flooding, urging a “clear and rapid reaction from the world” to support victims.
“The situation in occupied parts of the Kherson region is absolutely catastrophic. The occupiers are simply abandoning people in frightful conditions. No help, without water, left on the roofs of houses in submerged communities,” he said.
