The latest disaster in the region began Tuesday, when the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles) upstream from the town of Oleshky, collapsed, sending torrents of water down the Dnieper and across the war’s front lines. Russian President Vladimir Putin “has no plans at the current moment” to visit affected Moscow-occupied areas, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. On Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the area to assess the damage. Authorities there have aggressively evacuated civilians and brought in emergency supplies.

It’s a sharp contrast to Ukrainian-controlled territory flooded by the dam collapse.

The AP could not independently verify reports of boat seizures or that only Russians were being evacuated, but the account is in line with reporting by independent Russian media. Some say the soldiers will only help people with Russian passports.ĭetails of life in Russian-occupied Ukraine are often unclear. Lucky for her and her family, they were Ukrainian.Īccording to those stranded and their desperate Ukrainian rescuers, Russian forces are taking rescuers’ boats. “We were scared, we were trying to understand, ‘Who’s approaching us? Are they Russian or not?’ We raised a flag,” Shkrygalova said. That way, they survived in the war zone until Shkrygalova, 60, spotted a group of people in a boat and raised yellow, white and pink fabrics to get their attention. Her family began using their boat to scavenge for food, and find houses on higher ground with dry places to sleep. Water climbed waist-high on the second floor of Shkrygalova’s two-storey house. The boat was nothing special until Tuesday, when the Kakhovka dam ruptured and sent a flood from Ukraine’s largest reservoir into cities, towns and countryside downstream in a region that has suffered terribly since Russia invaded the country last year.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Alyona Shkrygalova’s family kept a rubber boat for their daily needs along the broad Dnieper River.

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