Russia bombed rescue boats in floods in Ukraine, three dead – the governor

KIEV (Reuters) – Russian forces bombed three small boats carrying elderly people to safety from flooded areas in southern Ukraine, the region’s governor said on Sunday, killing three people and wounding 10.

The region experienced catastrophic flooding along the Dnipro River after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Dam, which Kiev and Moscow accused each other of deliberately blowing up.

The appointed governor of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Russian forces were “deliberately trying to disrupt rescue efforts”.

“Today, terrorists fired at three boats used to rescue 21 people from the flooded (east) bank,” Prokudin told Ukrainian television.

“Almost all of them are elderly and have limited mobility. The Russian soldiers shot these people in the back.”

He said three people were killed and 10 injured, including two law enforcement officers, during the evacuation from Russian-controlled parts of the Kherson region to Ukrainian-controlled parts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the incident and repeated accusations that Russia was responsible for breaching the dam that flooded the towns. He said Russian forces were now shelling residents seeking to evacuate from flooded areas.

“(They) deliberately threw people into flooded towns and villages and then used missile boats to try to evacuate them,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Even animals have more morals than the Russian state.”

Prokudin told TV that a 74-year-old man used his body to protect a woman from Russian fire and was hit in the back and was so badly injured that paramedics could not save him.

Pictures posted on the Telegram channel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine showed medics taking evacuees from small boats and speeding through knee-deep water to carry them to safety – some on stretchers, some in the arms of rescuers.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said 23 people were injured in the accident. An investigation has been opened.

The incident was first reported by Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andrei Yermak who said that the boat was transporting evacuees from flooded areas in the occupied territories to the city of Kherson.

“The Russian army attacked a boat carrying civilians who were leaving the left bank of the Kherson region,” Yermak wrote in a Telegram message.

Reuters could not immediately verify the attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry failed to respond to a request for comment.

Russia denies targeting civilians. The massive invasion in February 2022 killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed cities

Additional reporting by Tom Palmforth, Pavel Politiuk, and Ron Popeski; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Russell and Margarita Choi

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