The Associated Press spoke with doctors and volunteers from the occupied part of the Kherson region and came to the conclusion that Russia deliberately underestimated the number of deaths due to the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
As the agency writes, the officially pro-Russian authorities of the occupied region reported 59 deaths, however, according to local volunteers and doctors, in Oleshki alone the number of deaths ranged from 200 to 300 people.
The Associated Press notes that on June 6, shortly after the breakthrough of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, the occupation administration of the Kherson region advised residents not to worry, assuring that “the situation is under control.” Pro-Russian authorities later left the city when the water level began to rise sharply.
The death toll in Oleshki, where the situation was worst due to the flood, was growing. Local health workers began collecting bodies and issuing death certificates. A few days later, representatives of the occupation administration returned to Oleshki — they verbally forbade doctors to issue documents about those killed as a result of the hydroelectric power station breakthrough. At the same time, death certificates continued to be issued if a person died for other reasons.
From that moment on, the bodies of those killed by the flood began to be sent for autopsy to other institutions in the occupied part of the Kherson region — to Kalanchak, Skadovsk and Genichesk. There, the documents were prepared by specialists appointed to positions by the Russian authorities. The issuance of death certificates in Oleshki was controlled by Russian security forces.
One of the local residents, on condition of anonymity, also told The Associated Press that together with her husband and neighbors they collected the bodies of the dead. They picked up at least a hundred bodies — they were taken to the central cemetery in Oleshki and buried. After this, the occupation authorities began to threaten the woman and forbade the collection of bodies.
After the flood, the desert. The destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station caused irreparable damage to the nature of Ukraine — this has never happened before
As a result of the breakthrough of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, dozens of cities and towns in the Kherson region went under water. On the left bank, Oleshki, Novaya Kakhovka and Golaya Pristan were flooded, on the right — Kherson and the villages nearby.
The New York Times, citing experts, wrote on June 6 that the most likely cause of the breakthrough of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station was an explosion. The next day, Vladimir Putin blamed the Ukrainian authorities for the incident, calling the destruction of the dam a “barbaric act.” In turn, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky blamed Russia for the flood and destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.