The French president offered to send rapid aid and condemned a “heinous act” after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
The tenant of the Elysée reacted, Wednesday, June 7, the day after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. “We will send in the next few hours help to meet the immediate needs.”promised Emmanuel Macron on Twittercondemning a “heinous act that endangers populations”. Here is what to remember from this new day of conflict.
Emmanuel Macron promises rapid aid to kyiv
On Twitter, the French president reacted, one day after the destruction of the Kahovka dam, denouncing a “heinous act”. He also promised to send aid to kyiv “in the next few hours (…) to meet immediate needs”.
According to the Elysée, the Crisis Center of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs will quickly dispatch a first convoy of around ten tonnes of products requested by Ukrainians, in terms of health, hygiene and water sanitation. , including a portable cistern. During a telephone interview with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Emmanuel Macron “also expressed the wish that humanitarian aid be provided to the Ukrainian populations affected by the floods residing in the territories controlled by the Russian army”said the French presidency.
Zelensky laments the lack of international aid
For his part, the Ukrainian President deplored the lack of humanitarian aid from the international community. “The UN, the United Nations and the representatives of the Red Cross are not there. All these hours, they are still not there”, Hammered Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview broadcast by the German media Welt TV and Bild. He said to himself “shocked” because “these are the forces that must be there to save people’s lives”.
The destruction on Tuesday of this hydroelectric dam located in an area under Russian control, for which Moscow and Kiev reject responsibility, flooded towns and villages located on both banks of the Dnieper River, including districts of the regional capital, Kherson .
Putin accuses kyiv of a “barbaric act”
While kyiv deplores the lack of international aid, Moscow continues to accuse Ukraine of being behind the destruction of the dam. “The barbaric act aimed at destroying the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region has led to a large-scale environmental and humanitarian disaster”said Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The UN denounces “a new devastating consequence of the Russian invasion”
For the UN, on the other hand, Moscow’s guilt is beyond doubt. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, denounced “Ihe tragedy of today is another example of the terrible cost of war for the population”. And the head of the UN to insist: “The floodgates of suffering have been overflowing for over a year. This must stop.”
Nearly 2,000 people evacuated on the Ukrainian side
Meanwhile, evacuations by bus and train continue in the east of the country. “The most difficult situation takes place in Korabelny district of the city of Kherson. So far the water level has risen by 3.5 m, more than 1,000 houses are flooded”, in this city taken over from the Russians by the Ukrainians in November 2022, said an official of the Ukrainian presidency.
According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko, 1,894 people have been evacuated from areas under Ukrainian control, where more than 1,600 rescuers and police have been mobilized. According to him, 30 localities have been flooded, including 10 currently under Russian control. In total, the Ukrainian authorities will have to evacuate “over 17,000” civilians, Attorney General Andriï Kostin estimated on Tuesday.
A targeted giant pipeline
Russia accused “a Ukrainian sabotage group” of blowing up the ammonia pipeline between Togliatti and Odessa. Moscow assures that the attack took place near Massiutovka, a small village in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, and that it left several injured (including civilians).