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TASTE OF DEATH
Drinking water contaminated with corpses from cemeteries after Ukraine dam blast as shock pics reveal full devastation
UKRAINIANS are facing drinking water that has been contaminated with corpses and pollution after the Russians are suspected of blowing up a dam.
Some 4.8 billion gallons of water surged along the Dnipro river, bursting the banks, flooding villages, and leaving parts of Kherson city completely underwater.
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Shocking aerial photos show houses and buildings submerged with just their roofs protruding above the rising waters.
The situation is worsening by the hour as the water continues to flow through the breached dam at Nova Kakhovka.
Ukraine estimates 42,000 people are at risk from the floods.
Rescuers are using rubber boats as civilians are left trapped on the upper floors and forced to sit on their roofs to escape the floodwater.
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Some areas have been left without power - and there are also growing fears over drinking water contamination.
Floodwater has surged through cemeteries - potentially being left contaminated by corpses.
And the destruction of the dam's hydroelectric plant has also released 150 tons of machine oil into the Dnipro.
Other hazardous chemicals and live landmines are also feared to have been swept into the flood waters.
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"Our water comes from the Dnipro - but now the cemeteries are flooded, so it's not safe to drink," one rescuer on the ground in Kherson told The Sun Online.
"Also there is oil in the water, the remnants of the power plant, and the mines.
"There is a lot of water now in the city - but there is no drinking safe water."
Water supplies are being moved in to try and ease the situation, but with the rescuers and the Ukrainian military face a race against time.
And some civilians who yesterday refused to move and wanted to stay in their homes have now been left trapped by the flood.
Ukrainian authorities are attempting to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Kherson and the surrounding area.
They are going to drown in hours, and there is nothing we can do
Rescuer
Residents waded through flooded streets carrying children on their shoulders, dogs in their arms, and belongings in plastic bags.
Buses and trains were laid on yesterday to ship people to nearby Odessa and Mykolaiv.
"People are trapped in homes and flats, they are calling for help and asking to be saved, but we cannot get to them," the rescuer told The Sun Online.
"The water level is rising at an insane rate and more and more people are being blocked.
"And it's worse on the Russian side of the river, we've had calls from people literally crying asking us for help - but we can't go into occupied territory.
"The Russians' so-called government is not doing anything to save these people who are stuck on their roofs.
"They are going to drown in hours, and there is nothing we can do."
The flooding is understood to be worse on the Russian side of the river - with some of Putin's military even being flooded out of their defensive positions.
It is unclear how many people have died, how many are trapped, and how many are missing from the disaster.
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Ukraine said the flood would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, swamp tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land, and turn more into deserts.
"If the water rises for another metre, we will lose our house," said Oleksandr Reva, in a village on the bank, who was moving his family's belongings into the abandoned home of a neighbour on higher ground.
Residents in the flood zone in the country's south blamed the bursting of the dam on Russian troops who controlled it from their positions on the opposite bank.
"They hate us," Reva said.
"They want to destroy a Ukrainian nation and Ukraine itself. And they don't care by what means because nothing is sacred for them."
And each side accused the other of continuing to shell across the flood zone.
Ukraine expects the floodwaters will stop rising by the end of Wednesday after reaching around five metres overnight, presidential deputy chief Oleksiy Kuleba said.
And it is expected the water will take the best parts of two weeks to subside.
"Everything is submerged in water, all the furniture, the fridge, food, all flowers, everything is floating. I do not know what to do," said Oksana, 53.
Fears continue to loom over what the destruction of the dam also means for the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
It is feared the lowering of water levels upstream of the dam could impact the nuclear plant's cooling pools.
Power outages could also lead to the nuke plant running on aging diesel backup generators.
And its been warned the plant is essentially being turned into an "improvised nuclear bomb" by the actions of the Russians.
The disaster at the dam coincided with the apparent start of a long-awaited counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces.
Kyiv said on Wednesday its troops in the east had advanced by more than a kilometre around the ruined city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "Evacuation of people. Urgent provision of drinking water and long-term solutions for settlements that were dependent on the reservoir. Assessment of losses and environmental damage.
"Evacuation on the left bank has been completely failed by the occupiers. We will appeal to international organizations.
"In addition, today, as every day, we have reports from the front. Intelligence data. Supply of equipment and ammunition.
"Interim results of the inspection of bomb shelters. Unfortunately, they are disappointing."
Western powers also blamed Russia for the damage, with EU chief Charles Michel calling it a "war crime", while NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the dam breach was "outrageous".
The United States "cannot say conclusively what happened at this point," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the country's military and intelligence agencies were probing whether Russia blew up the dam, but that it was "too soon" to say definitively.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the attack "another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine".
"Today's tragedy is yet another example of the horrific price of war on people," he said.
Russia, however, said the dam was partially destroyed by "multiple strikes" from Ukrainian forces and urged the world to condemn Kyiv's "criminal acts".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the destruction was the result of "deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side."
The breaking of the dam has chilling echoes of Russian tactics used in World War 2.
Russian tyrant Joseph Stalin ordered the destruction of the Dnieper dam in then-Soviet Ukraine to slow the advance of the Nazis.
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And the explosion resulted in a wall of water flooding villages along the riverbanks, killing thousands of civilians.
Russia defended the move as necessary as they needed to cover their retreat in an act of what was described as "sacrificial sabotage".
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