Hundreds of zoo animals killed in Ukraine flood after 'dam blown up by Russians' as 'only ducks and swans survive'

7 June 2023, 15:23 | Updated: 7 June 2023, 15:28

Hundreds of zoo animals have been killed in the huge flood caused by the explosion of a dam in Ukraine, which Kyiv has blamed on Russia.

Nearly all of the 260 animals in the zoo, named “Fairytale Díbrova”, died after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed earlier this month, about 44 miles to the east of the city of Kherson.

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and adjoining hydroelectric power station, which sits in an area Moscow has controlled for more than a year.

Russian officials blamed Ukrainian bombardment in the contested area, where the river separates the two sides.

UAnimals, an animal rights NGO that has helped shelter and rescue animals during the Russian invasion, said: "People were trying to save these animals for months. And then, just in one day because of the actions of Russians, 260 animals died.

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“Prior to the tragedy the zoo was home to monkeys, raccoons, a donkey, ponies, coypus, various birds, porcupines, groundhogs, turtles, and many other species. The occupiers do not value the lives of either animals or people."

Anton Geraschenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian government, branded the rupture of the dam a genocide.

He said: "The destruction of Kakhovka dam is a 'scorched earth' tactics. It's genocide. Today tens of thousands of people lost their homes, their land and were forced to flee. Thousands of animals, birds, fish and plants are dying.

"Russians are systematically destroying Ukraine. Putin's goal is to make Ukraine unsuitable for life so we become weak and are forced to stop fighting.

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"That is why they wage a war against cities, villages, dams, people. Russia wages a war against life.

"They go further and further in their crimes and feel their impunity. Russia must be stopped. It's not a local issue. It's a global threat."

Mr Gerashchenko shared a video of the zoo with a split screen of the animals during peace time, and after the flood.

"Locals said that 'authorities' did nothing to rescue the animals", he claimed.

Meanwhile, speaking to Martin Stanford on LBC News, New Zealand-based journalist Tom Mutch warned of some unexpected fall-out.

He warned the rising water level was also “damaging Russian positions” as well as Ukrainian ones.

He praised the Ukrainian evacuation efforts saying they appeared to have gone well but warned on the Russian side the flooding was close to a minefield.

"The flooding is detonating a bunch of mines, in other cases it’s carrying live munitions down the river which could easily wash into Russian fortifications."

Residents sloshed through knee-deep waters in their inundated homes as videos posted on social media showed rescue workers carrying people to safety, and an aerial video of waters filling the streets of Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovska on the eastern side of the river.

In Ukrainian-controlled areas on the western side, Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson Regional Military administration, said in a video that water levels are expected to rise by another 3ft over the next day.

"The intensity of floods is slightly decreasing; however, due to the significant destruction of the dam, the water will keep coming," he said.

The UK's Ministry of Defence, which regularly issues updates about the war, said the Kakhovka reservoir was at "record high" water levels before the breach.

While the dam was not entirely washed away, the MoD warned that its structure "is likely to deteriorate further over the next few days, causing additional flooding".

Together with the power station, the dam helps provide electricity, irrigation and drinking water to a wide section of southern Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Government and UN officials have warned of a human and ecological disaster whose repercussions will take days to assess and far longer to recover from.

The dam break, which both sides had long feared, added a new dimension to Russia's war, now in its 16th month.

Ukrainian forces were widely seen to be moving forward with a long-anticipated counteroffensive in patches along more than 621 miles of front line in the east and south.