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Ukrainian rescuers frantically ferrying civilians out of eastern towns that flooded after last week’s dam destruction are taking heavy fire from Russian snipers.
The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6 submerged dozens of Ukrainian towns along the lower Dnieper River, but resident and evacuees said Russia has done nothing to help stranded Ukrainians in the territory it holds.
Instead, rescue boats sent from the Ukraine-held side of the river have become targets for Moscow’s marksmen and drones.
Some evacuees said they were even forced to show Russian passports if they wanted to leave the Russian-occupied flooded areas.
“The Russian Federation provided nothing. No aid, no evacuation. They abandoned people alone to deal with the disaster,” said Yulia Valhe, who was evacuated from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky. “I have my friends who stayed there, people I know who need help. At the moment I can’t do anything except to say to them, ‘Hold on.’”
At least 150 have been rescued from Russian-occupied areas by Ukrainian forces, government spokesperson Oleksandr Tolokonniv said.
Meanwhile, nearly 2,750 were evacuated from flooded regions controlled by Ukraine, although rescue efforts have been made treacherous due to Russian attacks, he added.
“We will surely do everything we can, but we also cannot expose our people to danger,” Tolokonnikov said. “Russians keep threatening us and fulfilling their threats by shooting people in the back.”
One evacuee, 60-year-old Vitalii Shpalin, gave a harrowing account of the rescue voyage to Kherson city he took on June 11, after floodwaters submerged his home.
While traversing the river, Shpalin said Russian snipers opened fire on the rescue boat.
“They (Russians) let the boats through, those coming to rescue people,” Shpalin said. “But when the boats were full of people, they started shooting.”
Shpalin said he was shot in the arm and leg in the hail of gunfire.
The attack — which Ukrainian officials said was carried out by Russian soldiers — reportedly killed three civilians and injured 10, including at least two police officers.
Drone footage shows guns being fired at the evacuation boat from a nearby home as the boat passes by and Tolokonnikov confirmed the video’s authenticity.
Footage posted to Telegram by Ukrainian Special Forces shows people being rescued from the floodwaters as they waited on rooftops.
The video also shows Ukrainian artillery destroying the building a Russian sniper had been firing from.
“The occupiers fired at one of the groups of special forces that was evacuating civilians,” Security Service of Ukraine wrote. “But their position, equipped on the roof of a residential building, was immediately destroyed by an artillery strike.”
In other parts of the country, the Ukrainian counteroffensive, launched earlier this month. continued advancing around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military chiefs said.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who leads Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russia was calling in backup from its best divisions, while also bringing in artillery and aircraft support.
“We continue to conduct offensive actions in separate directions, occupying dominant heights, and strips of forest with the aim of forcing the enemy gradually out of the outskirts of Bakhmut,” Syrskyi said on Telegram. “Realizing this, the enemy units put up desperate resistance.”
Ukrainian forces also regained control of 38 square miles of territory near Kyiv in just over a week of its counterattack, Brigadier Gener Oleksii Hromov said.
US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Ukraine is “making steady progress,” but faces a tough road ahead and taking back territory will come “at a high cost.”
“This is a very difficult fight. It’s a very violent fight, and it will likely take a considerable amount of time at a high cost,” Milley said at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
With Post Wires.
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