The explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region in June may have caused many more deaths than the 59 Russia admitted, according to an Associated Press (AP) investigation.
“The Russian occupation authorities deliberately and massively underestimated the number of deaths in one of the most devastating chapters of the 22-month war.”wrote the North American News Agency.
Witnesses who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from Russian authorities said mass graves were opened and unidentified bodies taken away, never to be seen again.
The dam burst in the early hours of June 6, causing massive flooding along the lower Dnipro River.
Initially, the Russian-appointed Kherson government told residents not to worry because the situation was not critical, so most people could continue their normal lives.
But within hours, entire communities on the Right Bank, controlled by Ukraine, and on the Left Bank, occupied by Russia, were underwater.
Russia, which did not respond to AP questions, said 59 people have drowned in the area it controls, about 408 square kilometers of flooded areas.
But only in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, which according to the Ukrainian army had a population of 16,000 at the time of the tragedy, the death toll is at least in the hundreds.
The bodies piled up and decomposed in the summer heat. Health workers and volunteers began collecting bodies and issuing death certificates, but on the 12th everything changed.
Russian aid workers returned to Oleshky on the afternoon of June 9 and took control of the situation three days later.
They took large trucks and road cleaning equipment and offered to transfer the residents to two Russian locations, but they refused and only asked to be taken to a dry area in Oleshky.
Russian authorities have banned doctors from issuing death certificates to flood victims, two nurses told the AP.
From then on, they said, flood victims should be sent for autopsies to other facilities in the Kherson region, in Kalanchak, Skadovsk and Henichesk.
Over there, Doctors approved by the occupation authorities would be responsible for issuing the certificates after conducting forensic examinations. Family members could not bury the dead without this crucial document.
The exact number of deaths – in Oleshky, the most populous city in the pre-war occupied zone, and beyond – may never be known, even if Ukrainian forces retake the area and are able to investigate on the ground.
The dozens of interviews conducted during the investigation reveal a calculated attempt by Russian authorities to cover up the true cost of the dam’s collapse, which was “likely caused by Moscow,” the AP said.
People “don’t realize the magnitude of this tragedy, not only in Russia but also in Ukraine,” said a nurse who initially supervised the collection of death certificates and later fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“It’s a huge tragedy,” he added.
Source: DN
