President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the flooded area around the Kakhovka Dam was not announced until he left the area. Photo: REUTERS 
Shelling from the Russian coast hinders rescue operations in the area. Photo: REUTERS
«Take cover!» a group of National Guard volunteers yelled as the first of half a dozen shells hit the area, throwing up huge columns of water and crashing into nearby high-rise buildings. Dnipro and appears to have been a response to President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to oversee rescue operations at Korabel.
While the Ukrainian leader's trip was not reported prior to his departure, the rocket launches began shortly after the details of his trip were posted online by his office. It was later reported that at least eight people were injured.
“This is supposed to be an evacuation mission, but the Russians are attacking it,” Olga Khlebnikova, 54, a rescue worker from the northern city of Kharkov, protested when she took refuge with The Telegraph on the landing of an apartment building. “Before, Kharkov was shelled a lot, but now Kherson is even worse. I just hope the volunteers who are on the boats right now are all right.”
A nation of animal lovers, Ukrainians are looking for missing pets in the flood zone. Photo: LIBKOS/AP
The volunteers are out of order. Among them was a greatly shocked local shipowner, who called himself none other than «Sergey», who usually used his ship only for pleasure trips along the Dnieper. He said he volunteered for what he thought would be just a quick mission to ferry a friend out of a flooded apartment building, in part because of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take a boat ride through the streets of Kherson. Instead, he hit what looked like a mini-Dunkirk.
“One of the bombs fell right next to us as we sailed,” he said. “She hit the roof of an apartment building just 50 meters from us, the noise was terrifying.”
Thursday's shelling was a sign that, despite the devastating damage caused by Monday's explosions at the Kakhovka dam, which lies 40 miles upstream from Kherson, both Russia and Ukraine intend to continue fighting. Volleys from the Russian side of the Dnieper were met with outgoing Ukrainian fire, and Kremlin officials later accused Ukrainian forces of targeting evacuees fleeing flooded cities on the Russian-occupied east bank.
Ukrainian officials who accused Russia of deliberately sabotaging the dam said last night that more than 600 square kilometers of land had been affected by the floods, and about 40,000 people were advised to evacuate.
Alexander Orel took shelter in his neighbor's house near the Dnieper
However, for many Kherson residents who have already survived eight months of Russian occupation last year, it is not easy to move on. Among those left behind is 67-year-old pensioner Oleksandr Oryol, whose house on the banks of the Dnieper River came under crossfire from Ukrainian and Russian forces. Twice in the past six months, his backyard garden has been hit by Russian phosphorus incendiary bombs, setting it on fire. Now it is completely flooded, the Dnieper rose almost four meters in a few hours immediately after the dam broke.
“We heard about the dam break on the news, so we were prepared for it, although it was very scary to watch the water rise so high and fast,” he said, wading in knee-deep shorts in the water, washing out what was usually a vegetable garden. “But our neighbor’s house down the road is empty, so we stay there — this is our homeland, so why should we leave it?”
As he spoke, the roar of the river next to him showed how dramatic the scale was dam break. Usually at this time of summer, the Dnieper is quiet and slow: now it looks more like the Amazon in rainy weather. Flood waters flow at about 25 miles per hour, creating foaming rapids over patches of flooded forest and dragging entire trees downriver.
A wet cat manages to get out of the flood waters in Kherson. Photo: MYKOLA TIMCHENKO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Eels, frogs and snakes swim in abundance along the river bank, driven out of their usual habitats by strong currents. Farther upstream, whole schools of dead fish have been found on river banks, and around Kherson there are fears that flood waters could wash away more gruesome finds. One resident posted on a local Facebook page that he had found the corpse of an unidentified war victim dug up by the floodwaters.
Despite the chaos, life goes on in Kherson's unaffected areas, cafes and shops remain open . Residents also hoped on Thursday that the flood had finally reached its high tide.
“The water level hasn’t risen since this morning and we hope it may drop a little now,” said Artur Shcherbina, who lives in a nine-story apartment building next to the flooded harbor. His neighbors marked the high tide that morning with an old soup can, from where the water has now receded about a foot.
The pier in the Kherson region is almost completely flooded with flood waters. rescuing dogs and cats with equal dedication. Teams of animal rescue experts, including many foreign volunteers, are everywhere, scouring the area for chained dogs and plucking distressed cats from rooftops and window eaves.
Among those rescued by a team led by Tom Bates, from British Animal Rescue K9 was a white kitten caught like a goldfish in a big net. However, as the crew carefully poured the soaked feline into a plastic cat carrier, the artillery fire frightened it off down the road.
«I don't think we—I'll be too worried,» said Mr Bates. «He's back on land where he belongs.»
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