Ukraine war: Inside Kherson’s flood zone, desperate evacuees are fleeing artillery attacks as well as rising waters
There are several possible war crimes playing out in real-time in southern Ukraine and the world is watching as the tragedy unfolds, following the destruction of a major dam.
We were at one of the flood evacuation points in Kherson when it came under attack – targeting those just rescued; the rescuers; the relief teams and the journalists covering the emergency.
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Ukraine war day 470: Zelenskyy visits Kherson
There was immediate panic as everyone rushed to take cover – scattering against walls, running downstairs to basements and cowering in doorways.
“Everyone move!”, a volunteer shouted to his team. “Prepare to pack up.”
Panic at flood evacuation point – live updates
As they scrambled to carry cages filled with bedraggled, sodden animals to safety, and break down and pack up their temporary food and water shelters, the attacks kept coming in – an artillery barrage and rockets levelled at aid workers, as well as the scared and the desperate who they were caring for.
We saw two volunteers trying to carry one of their few dinghies being used in the rescue efforts – before dropping it and running as another rocket screamed overhead.
Hours earlier, the Ukrainian leader visited one of the evacuation points in Kherson to support the relief effort.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already urged global leaders to do more to rally around and help, castigating the international organisations for what he deems as their sluggish response.
‘I’m not afraid of anything anymore’
The same evacuation point came under repeated attack after he left.
We were given footage filmed by one soldier as they took an injured civilian to safety on a stretcher.
Frail old women were shepherded to shelter along walls as the ominous sounds of an artillery barrage rumbled on.
But 74-year-old Larissa brushed it all off.
Dogs were rescued from the flooding
“They bombed my apartment before new year,” she told us. “We’ve been through it all. I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”
The first flooding deaths are now being reported.
Tragically, they will not be the last.
Ukrainian media said three people had died in the Kherson region as a result of flooding.
But the Ukrainian president has pointed out it is “impossible to predict how many people will die” in the Russian-controlled areas of Kherson.
Reports from those who have managed to flee from there to the Ukrainian side told us the Russian troops appeared as shocked as they were at the dam explosion and subsequent floods.
They said the Russian troops told them they expected to be evacuated.
But when that didn’t happen, the residents saw some of the Russian troops swimming to get away.
Tearful reunions interrupted by attacks
A family of six, including two children and a kitten, wept with relief at being reunited with their relatives on the Ukrainian-held side of Kherson.
They told of sheltering in the loft of their home in the Russian-occupied village of Kardashynka until their whole house started crumbling as the waters kept rising.
“You’re home. You’re home,” their waiting relative said repeatedly as she hugged them over and over.
The family thought they had fled to safety in Ukrainian territory – surviving shelling, the flood zone and currents to make it to the other side.
But a short time later, all those newly rescued, as well as those trying to help them, came under multiple and random attacks.
This is a war zone.
The waters have washed over entire areas of the battlefield.
The Ukrainian rescue operation is going on in the midst of artillery fire and shelling – and the threat of mines.
We’ve spent the last few days since the Nova Kakhova dam burst – and sent a torrent of water cascading either side of the Dnipro river – witnessing the devastation and desperation it has already wrought on humans, animals and the landscape.
The Ukrainian president says there may be about 100 communities, villages and towns, including Kherson city, affected.
Aerial pictures taken from several drones show huge swathes of what were once residential areas now underwater – covered in sewage and debris, mixed with chemicals and toxins and there are reports of oil too.
President Zelenskyy first described it as “ecocide” – then an environmental bomb of mass destruction.
He may well be underestimating the massive effect this is going to have on the land, countryside and people.
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Did Russia ‘blow the dam’ early?
A horrifyingly slow misery
It’s actually difficult to overstate just how much of a tragedy this is – and the full scale of what’s happened will probably not be felt or even properly assessed for some time.
Immediately though, right in front of us, on an hourly basis, we are seeing the human and animal suffering and cost.
But it’s a slow, drawn-out misery.
Depressingly, horrifyingly slow.
The steady filling-up of streets is even taking the residents by surprise.
The waters keep rising – for the first 12 or so hours by 10-12cm per hour.
Read more:
‘Russians were looting our houses’
What impact will dam disaster have?
Satellite images reveal scale of destruction
By yesterday, that had slowed to 1-2cm an hour.
The waters are expected to stay high for another four to five days, though.
And the average flood level of the water is about 5.6 metres (about 18ft), according to the governor of Kherson Oblast.
That’s enough to cover the tops of street signs and reach the tip of roofs.
The residents have been living in areas where the rumble of artillery and mortar firing, of explosions and shells dropping, has been a constant, frightening, deadly backdrop.
And those who have stuck it out, those who have resolutely refused to be pushed out by the fighting and war – and then refused to budge because of the flooding – are now coming under fire as they finally give up their homes to the rising waters.
We saw videos filmed by the rescuers themselves showing the waters around them punctured by artillery strikes throwing huge showers of water into the air as they tried to keep their balance on tiny dinghies, clutching to still-visible rooftops peeking out from the waters.
It’s difficult to imagine it getting much more frightening or miserable for these people.
Alex Crawford is reporting from Kherson, with cameraman Jake Britton and producers Chris Cunningham and Artem Lysak
There is much that is still not known about the US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Reports are coming in about which sites were hit and what military elements were involved, as President Donald Trump hails the attack on social media.
Here’s what we know so far.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
Which sites were hit?
America appears to have hit the three key locations in Iran’s nuclear programme.
They include Isfahan, the location of a significant research base, as well as uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow.
Natanz was believed to have been previously damaged in Israeli strikes after bombs disrupted power to the centrifuge hall, possibly destroying the machines indirectly.
However the facility at Fordow, which is buried around 80 metres below a mountain, had previously escaped major damage.
Details about the damage in the US strikes is not yet known, although Mr Trump said the three sites had been “obliterated”.
Read more:
Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
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Sky’s Mark Stone explains how Iran might respond to the US strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites.
What weapons were used in the attacks?
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation, but a US official said B-2 heavy bombers were involved.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said he had spoken with the president and that six bunker buster bombs were used on the Fordow facility.
Bunker buster bombs are designed to explode twice. Once to breach the ground surface and again once the bomb has burrowed down to a certain depth.
A file picture of a GBU-57 bunker buster bomb, which was possibly used in the attack on Fordow. Pic: AP
Israel has some in its arsenal but does not have the much more powerful GBU-57, which can only be launched from the B-2 bomber and was believed to be the only bomb capable of breaching Fordow.
Hannity said 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by US submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan.
The US has carried out a “very successful attack” on three nuclear sites on Iran, President Donald Trump has said.
The strikes, which the US leader announced on social media, reportedly include a hit on the heavily-protected Fordow enrichment plant which is buried deep under a mountain.
The other sites hit were at Natanz and Isfahan. It brings the US into direct involvement in the war between Israel and Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the “bold decision” by Mr Trump, saying it would “change history”.
Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said in June that it has no proof of a “systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon”.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
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Trump: Iran strikes ‘spectacular success’
Addressing the nation in the hours after the strikes, Mr Trump said that Iran must now make peace or “we will
go after” other targets in Iran.
Commenting on the operation, he said that the three Iranian sites had been “obliterated”.
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight
days,” he said.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said Donald Trump and the US have acted with strength following strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In a posting on Truth Social earlier, Mr Trump said, “All planes are safely on their way home” and he congratulated “our great American Warriors”. He added: “Fordow is gone.”
He also threatened further strikes on Iran unless it doesn’t “stop immediately”, adding: “Now is the time for peace.”
It is not yet clear if the UK was directly involved in the attack.
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‘Iranians have to repond’
Read more:
Analysis: If Israel breaks Iran it will end up owning the chaos
Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
Among the sites hit was Fordow, a secretive nuclear facility buried around 80 metres below a mountain and one of two key uranium enrichment plants in Iran.
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Mr Trump said. “Fordow is gone.”
There had been a lot of discussion in recent days about possible American involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict, and much centred around the US possibly being best placed to destroy Fordow.
Meanwhile, Natanz and Isfahan were the other two sites hit in the US attack.
Natanz is the other major uranium enrichment plant in Iran and was believed to have possibly already suffered extensive damage in Israel’s strikes earlier this week.
Isfahan features a large nuclear technology centre and enriched uranium is also stored there, diplomats say.
Map showing the Fordow enrichment plant
US media reported that six ‘bunker buster’ bombs were used to strike Fordow.
Mr Trump said no further strikes were planned and that he hoped diplomacy would now take over.
It’s not yet known what Iran’s response will be – particularly as the government was already struggling to repel Israel.
However a commentator on Iranian state TV said every US citizen or military in the region was now a legitimate target.
World
Like George W Bush did in Iraq, if Israel breaks Iran it will end up owning the chaos that could ensue
Israelis are good at tactics, poor at strategic vision, it has been observed.
Their campaign against Iran may be a case in point.
Short termism is understandable in a region that is so unpredictable. Why make elaborate plans if they are generally undone by unexpected events? It is a mindset that is familiar to anyone who has lived or worked there.
And it informs policy-making. The Israeli offensive in Gaza is no exception. The Israeli government has never been clear how it will end or what happens the day after that in what remains of the coastal strip. Pressed privately, even senior advisers will admit they simply do not know.
It may seem unfair to call a military operation against Iran that literally took decades of planning short-termist or purely tactical. There was clearly a strategy of astonishing sophistication behind a devastating campaign that has dismantled so much of the enemy’s capability.
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How close is Iran to producing a nuclear weapon?
But is there a strategic vision beyond that? That is what worries Israel’s allies.
It’s not as if we’ve not been here before, time and time again. From Libya to Afghanistan and all points in between we have seen the chaos and carnage that follows governments being changed.
Hundreds of thousands have died. Vast swathes of territory remain mired in turmoil or instability.
Which is where a famous warning sign to American shoppers in the 80s and 90s comes in.
Ahead of the disastrous invasion that would tear Iraq apart, America’s defence secretary, Colin Powell, is said to have warned US president George W Bush of the “Pottery Barn rule”.
The Pottery Barn was an American furnishings store. Signs among its wares told clumsy customers: “You break it, you own it.”
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Iran and Israel exchange attacks
Bush did not listen to Powell hard enough. His administration would end up breaking Iraq and owning the aftermath in a bloody debacle lasting years.
Israel is not invading Iran, but it is bombing it back to the 80s, or even the 70s, because it is calling for the fall of the government that came to power at the end of that decade.
Iran’s leadership is proving resilient so far but we are just a week in. It is a country of 90 million, already riven with social and political discontent. Its system of government is based on factional competition, in which paranoia, suspicion and intense rivalries are the order of the day.
Read more:
Putin says ‘Ukraine is ours’ and threatens nuclear strike
Air India warned by watchdog over pilot scheduling breaches
After half a century of authoritarian theocratic rule there are no opposition groups ready to replace the ayatollahs. There may be a powerful sense of social cohesion and a patriotic resentment of outside interference, for plenty of good historic reasons.
But if that is not enough to keep the country together then chaos could ensue. One of the biggest and most consequential nations in the region could descend into violent instability.
That will have been on Israel’s watch. If it breaks Iran it will own it even more than America owned the disaster in Iraq.
Iran and Israel are, after all, in the same neighbourhood.
Has Israel thought through the consequences? What is the strategic vision beyond victory?
And if America joins in, as Donald Trump is threatening, is it prepared to share that legacy?
At the very least, is his administration asking its allies whether they have a plan for what could come next?
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