Russia seized boats, harassed volunteers, concealed gravesites ― Kakhovka Dam explosion investigation
Russian-controlled forces in Kherson Oblast have deliberately made it harder for civilians to evacuate the flood zone following the Russian destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023.
According to an investigation by the Kyiv Independent, the Russian military interfered with the work of locals who were evacuating people from the flooded areas on their own — their boats were confiscated, while the volunteers were threatened and forced to stop the efforts.
In turn, the local rescue services, working under occupation, did not have enough resources for the evacuation, while the occupation authorities deliberately concealed the magnitude of the disaster.
As a result of these actions, civilians on the occupied east bank of Kherson Oblast that could have been rescued have died.
The Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigation Unit recorded fifty testimonies from eyewitnesses, relatives of eyewitnesses, and volunteers who stayed in the occupied territories during the flooding following the Kakhovka Dam explosion and were involved in rescuing people.
Read also: As 'negotiations' weigh Ukraine's land, the lives lost under Russian occupation are forgotten
The testimonies laid the basis for the Kyiv Independent's investigative documentary, When the Water Screams, which premiered on Feb. 27.
Following the explosion, the water from the Kakhovka Reservoir began to flood settlements located downstream. On the Ukrainian-controlled part of Kherson Oblast, an immediate evacuation took place, including from the regional capital of Kherson, which saw several neighborhoods being flooded.
The Russian-occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro River, however, had been hit the hardest.
The witnesses told the Kyiv Independent that they didn't hear announcements about an evacuation. Boats carrying rescuers from the Russian-controlled emergency services did not appear until several days after the explosion.
The evacuation of civilians fell on the shoulders of the locals, who organized and coordinated the rescue themselves, in particular, via a Telegram chat. Yet, Russian soldiers did not allow volunteers to enter all the flooded areas, and confiscated their boats under threat of punishment. The Kyiv Independent identified a man from the east bank involved in the rescue operation, who went missing.
Volodymyr Saldo, the Russian-installed head of the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, put Andrey Alekseenko, the so-called head of the government of the occupied eastern bank, in charge of the emergency response. Alekseenko is the former mayor of Krasnodar, a Russian city.
At the time of the explosion, the local rescue service was headed by Ivan Pavlienko — a Russian Major General.
Pavlienko, who had vast experience in dealing with emergency situations in Russia, was in charge of the utility services set to deal with the flooding.
However, the resources Russia allocated to combat the disaster were inadequate.
In Russia's Ivanovo Oblast, which is almost the same size as the occupied part of Ukraine's Kherson Oblast, there were eight times more personnel and 18 times more "special equipment."
A year after the Kakhovka Dam explosion, Russian-controlled official Saldo reported that over 60 people died due to the flooding.
According to eyewitnesses and volunteers involved in the evacuation, hundreds of people may have died on the occupied eastern bank of Kherson Oblast, and the authorities attempted to conceal the extent of civilian casualties.
When the waters rose, doctors at the Oleshky Polyclinic managed to issue six death certificates, after which they were forbidden from issuing such documents. The bodies of the dead were then taken away.
The Kyiv Independent recorded five cases in which the relatives of the victims were not informed about the fate of their deceased, and their burial place remains unknown.
Read also: Deer and boar could roam forests in the Kakhovka reservoir in 5 years, head of national reserve says
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