AreaRead the video transcript here
Horror among the inhabitants of the village of Maryanske: thousands of fish have perished on the bottom of the Kakhovka reservoir.
Viktor Nedria, villager:
"Because the cruel Russian occupiers blew up the dam, the water level dropped very quickly. So fast, in fact, that even the fish in the reservoir couldn't swim fast enough into deeper water. What we see here is a picture of horror. The full extent cannot yet be estimated, but it is enormous."
The people here live from the reservoir, and there is correspondingly great concern about the ecological and economic consequences of the dam failure. Some residents of Marjanske are still trying to build a makeshift dam to save at least some of the spawning fish – and to secure as much water as possible for the community.
According to the authorities, hundreds of thousands of people in a larger catchment area around the Dnieper River no longer have regular access to drinking water. The downstream towns and also the Crimea could face water shortages in the long term. In the future, the huge water reserves of the reservoir will also be lacking for irrigation in agriculture, which is essential for Ukraine's survival.
But first, the focus is on human lives, and around 40,000 could be affected. And while evacuations and aid arrived relatively quickly on the Ukrainian-controlled west bank, people on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnieper are even worse off. The land on the east bank is deeper, the water came faster – but reportedly all the less help. Like here in Korsunka.
Vitaly, villager:
"The water came 100 meters further into the village every hour. At least. From the center to the flooded house, it was there in an hour. In 15 minutes, all the cellars and wells were flooded. Everything was under water."
On Tuesday, the Russian-appointed administrators had asked residents of three districts to leave their homes. According to reports, however, occupiers only brought themselves to safety and failed to evacuate local residents.
It was only on Thursday that the Russian Emergencies Ministry published footage of individual helpers working in the flooded area.
Ukraine's provincial government in Kherson said that 68 percent of the flooded area was on the Russian-controlled left bank, including Nova Kakhovka. The city in the immediate vicinity of the dam was partially evacuated after the dam collapsed. After the water level peaked on Wednesday, residents assessed the damage.
Valery Melnik, a local resident:
"Of course, we knew that the dam had been blown up. But what should we do? The water did not come from the Dnieper, it came through the sewers, from the opposite direction. (...) We had hoped that the local city council would help us and pump the water out of the pit. You could. But they don't do anything."
Little is known about the deaths and injuries caused by the floods. The Russian occupiers of Nova Kakhovka spoke on Thursday morning on Russian state television of five dead in the city. In addition, more than 40 people were injured.