Russians shoot at people trying to evacuate from flooded left-bank Kherson region – Rubryka

The Rubryka reporter is working at the scene of events in flooded Kherson.

After the Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) and the dam on June 6, water from the Kakhovka reservoir has already flooded up to 80 settlements. The left bank, the low-lying bank of the Dnieper, which the Russians now occupy, suffered the most. Residents of Kherson are contacting their relatives in the occupied part of the Kherson region and begging to help them — the residents of the occupied territories are in a critical situation. The Russians are not conducting any evacuation, and those who try to escape on their own are shot at.

Svitlana from Kherson told the Rubryka reporter about the situation in Hola Prystan, where her sister lives. There is almost no mobile service in Hola Prystan, but Svitlana managed to contact her sister Olena.

"There is a very critical situation there. The water there already reaches more than three meters. Most of the houses are flooded. Buildings are falling. The people there are sitting on the ridges of their homes, and many people have already gone under the water. They just can't. They're exhausted. They can't sit there anymore.

"People are asking for help a lot. The Russians did not allow them to leave in their car; they wanted to leave, but they were turned away at a checkpoint and were not allowed to leave. And now they just shoot people trying to escape on boats. Our people."

Svitlana's sister says that the family has water left for two days. They don't know how to go on.

"We need publicity and tell about it to the whole world. This is genocide. It is terrible what is being done to our people. We need to save them," says Svitlana.

The woman recorded part of the conversation with her sister on a dictaphone.

"The water is already three meters here. People are dehydrated, these screams, people are going underwater…" says Olena on the phone. During the conversation, the woman cries.