GENICHESK, June 8. /TASS/. Two people were killed and two others were wounded as a result of Ukrainian shelling of an evacuation point for civilians from the Kherson Region’s town of Golaya Prystan, flooded after the collapse of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), Acting Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo said.
"Militants of the Kiev regime committed a heinous crime today. They shelled an evacuation point for civilians in Golaya Prystan. Two people were killed, including a pregnant woman, 33. Two other people were wounded, they are being taken to hospital," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to the acting governor, the shelling was deliberate. "They deliberately shelled peaceful people," Saldo pointed out.
Earlier on Thursday, a TASS correspondent reported that the Ukrainian military had hit an evacuation point for civilians from Golaya Prystan. Smoke rose from the site of the shelling.
On the morning of June 6, Ukrainian forces delivered a strike on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), presumably from an Olkha multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). The shelling destroyed the hydraulic sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. In Novaya Kakhovka, the water level exceeded 12 meters at one point, but is now receding. There are currently 35 population centers in the flood zone; residents of nearby towns and villages are being evacuated. Novaya Kakhovka Mayor Vladimir Leontyev reported five civilian casualties. Moreover, 41 people have been hospitalized.
The collapse of the hydro plant's dam has caused serious environmental damage. Farmlands along the Dnieper River have been washed away, and there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal will become shallow. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack on the Kakhovka HPP as a deliberate act of sabotage by Ukraine. He added that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for the consequences.