ALYOSHKI /Kherson Region/, June 9. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops are shelling the evacuation point in the flooded city of Alyoshki in the Kherson Region, preventing the rescue of people who have been waiting to be evacuated from the roofs of their houses for the fourth day in a row, a TASS correspondent reported on Friday.
Rescuers are keeping their cars away from the water’s edge where boats are docked so as not to become a target for Ukrainian troops.
"They’re getting shot at the moment the car pulls up. As a boat with people comes in, artillery fire begins," said local resident Alexander who is helping evacuate people.
Several hundred meters away, people are waiting for transport vehicles to take them to a temporary accommodation center in Skadovsk. They say that the flooded city of Alyoshki is being shelled too. "There was no shelling yesterday or today but shelling attacks were staged in the nighttime and in the morning. They continued to shell the city until June 6, when the water started to flow. We were horrified," said Natalia, an evacuated woman. She said she had seen the bodies of those who died in the flood with her own eyes.
People are being taken from Alyoshki to the evacuation point on the M-14 highway by boat.
A pinewood forest is on fire about one kilometer away, and Ukrainian troops continue to shell it.
On the morning of June 6, the Ukrainian military launched a missile attack on the Kakhovka HPP, which resulted in the destruction of gate sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. According to emergency services, there are 35 communities in the flood zone, and residents of nearby villages are being evacuated. Eight people are reported to have died and more than 60 taken to the hospital.
The destruction of the hydro power plant has caused serious environmental damage with farmlands along the Dnieper River being washed away. Additionally, there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal may run low and become too shallow. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the strike on the Kakhovka dam as an act of deliberate sabotage by Ukrainian forces, adding that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for its consequences.