MOSCOW. June 9 (Interfax) - Officers of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry have evacuated over 1,500 people, including 154 children, from flooded territories of the Kherson region, and the evacuation is continuing, the ministry press service said on Friday.
"Rescuers from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry have saved over 1,500 people, including 154 children. More than 5,000 people, including 178 children and 66 people with limited mobility, have been evacuated to date," the press service said.
The ministry is increasing its taskforce to mitigate the damage from the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant's dam collapse.
"A group of over 190 officers and 66 off-road vehicles has been deployed on site. Airmobile teams of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's departments in the Rostov region and Sevastopol, alongside the Don and Tula rescue centers are on standby," the press service said.
A taskforce led by Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Anatoly Suprunovsky has also visited a number of flooded areas of the Kherson region.
The Suprunovsky taskforce went to the Kherson region on Wednesday to coordinate assistance to the local population on the orders from Minister Alexander Kurenkov based on an instruction from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Valves and other surface infrastructure elements of the Kakhovka HPP were ruined in the early hours of June 6, causing an uncontrolled discharge of Dnieper water downstream from the Kakhovka reservoir in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Water levels rose to 12 meters in riverside communities of the Kherson region. People have been evacuated from Novaya Kakhovka, Alyoshki and Golaya Pristan. An emergency has been declared.
The Kakhovka HPP, in operation since the 1950s, regulates the Dnieper's water flow for the purpose of power generation, irrigation and water supply to arid regions of southern Ukraine, as well as navigation between Kherson and Zaporozhye. It is where the North Crimean Canal, which provides the peninsula with water from the Dnieper, begins. The plant has not generated electricity since mid-2022 because of attacks.