On June 8, the Russian military shelled Ukraine’s Kherson region, where civilians are currently trying to evacuate due to the flood unleashed by the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) dam several days ago. According to a preliminary report from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, one person was killed and at least two were wounded as a result of the targeted strikes.
Regional prosecutors in Kherson and Oleshky have begun a pre-trial investigation into the violation of laws and customs of war (Parts 1 and 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The Telegram channel Astra published videos of the shelling, filmed by local residents. One of them shows an elderly man with a head wound sitting in a boat.
In an earlier interview with the Axel Springer publishing house, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that many residents on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River have died as a result of flooding.
“People, animals have died,” Zelensky said. “From the roofs of the flooded houses, people see drowned people floating by. You can see that on the other side. It’s very hard to get people out of the occupied part of Kherson region. When our forces try to get them out, they are shot at by occupiers from a distance.”
According to Zelensky, Ukrainian rescuers are trying to help residents of the occupied areas, but they are being shot at by the Russian military. As the president noted, he had long warned his Western partners that the Russians might blow up the Kakhovka HPP dam.
The Kakhovka HPP dam broke following several blasts on June 6, unleashing the waters of the Dnipro River downstream across the Kherson region. The floodwaters threaten 80 settlements on both the Ukrainian-held and Russian-occupied sides of the river, according to Kyiv.