The Russian occupation authorities in the captured territory of the Kherson region significantly and deliberately underestimated the number of victims of the Kakhovka HPP explosion. Russia controlled the issuance of death certificates and seized bodies that were not claimed by relatives, and threatened medics and volunteers for disclosing "extra" information.
This is stated in an investigation by the Associated Press (AP).
"Not only Russia, but even Ukraine does not realize the scale of this tragedy," noted nurse Svitlana, who monitored the process of collecting death certificates and then left for the controlled territory of Kyiv.
Russia claimed 59 dead, but only in Oleshky, whose population at the time of the explosion was about 16 000 people, the number of victims is estimated to be at least hundreds. According to doctorsʼ estimates, 200 to 300 people drowned in Oleshky.
AP journalists spoke with three medical workers who kept records of the dead in Oleshky, a volunteer who hid the bodies, and two informants who gave intelligence from the area to SBU. According to them, the mass graves were dug up and the unidentified bodies were taken away and never seen again.
Local residents, rescuers, people who managed to leave the occupation, and messages in the Telegram chat showed that there were many bodies on the streets of Oleshky, and there were still many missing people.
However, as soon as Russia blew up the dam, the occupation authorities wrote that "the situation is not critical." In a few hours, the water flooded the two-story houses. People were rescued by locals who had boats. Meanwhile, the representatives of the occupiers, the Russian-appointed police officers, were nowhere to be seen. Most likely, they ran away.
"Peopleʼs bodies were floating around the city like balloons," Svitlana added, explaining that the bodies were rotting and bloated.
Medical workers took responsibility and began issuing death certificates under both Ukrainian and Russian law. It was forbidden to issue death certificates in Ukrainian, so doctors did it secretly so that Kyiv could keep records of the dead.
In a few days, the occupiers brought large-sized trucks, equipment for clearing roads and offered to evacuate people first to Radensk, Kherson region, and from there to resettle in Chelyabinsk and Tula in Russia. Locals refused, and instead asked to be taken on dry land in Oleshky. The Russians did not do this.
The occupation authorities forbade doctors to issue death certificates for flood victims, but allowed other causes of death to be given. Russian-appointed police came to the hospital every day to make sure rules were being followed.
After that, those who died due to the detonation of the dam were sent for autopsies to other medical institutions of the Kherson region, where the certificates were already issued by doctors approved by the occupation authorities. Without a death certificate, relatives could not bury a person, so they asked the doctors in Oleshky to write another cause of death, such as "heart attack", so that they could be buried quickly.
The first buried bodies were placed in a mass grave in the center of Oleshky without coffins and even without bags. The bodies were not autopsied, and the cause of their death was not established. They were buried immediately.
Nurse Svitlana documented all cases of death due to the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP and hid the documents "in a safe place." She believes that after the deoccupation of Oleshky, it will help Ukraine to establish the real number of victims of the cityʼs flooding.
- On the night of June 6, Russia blew up the Kakhovka HPP in the Kherson region. The Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko stated that the Kakhovka HPP cannot be restored, as 11 of the 28 spans of the dam have been destroyed. The UN believes that the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP caused $14 billion in damage to Ukraine. In July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine announced that 31 Ukrainians had died in the territory controlled by Kyiv due to the explosion of a dam.