General Staff: Russian soldiers didn't prepare for Kakhovka dam destruction, suffered losses on Dnipro River's east bank

Russian troops occupying the east bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast were not ready for the effects of the Kakhovka dam destruction, resulting in losses in personnel and military equipment, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on June 8.

In particular, there are injured, dead, and missing in Russia's 7th Air Assault Division and the 22nd Army Corps, the General Staff wrote, without specifying the numbers.

According to the report, those units also lost several field ammunition depots and food storages, soft-skinned vehicles, armored vehicles, and other military property.

On June 6, a mass evacuation of civilians from Russian-occupied Kakhovka reportedly took place with people using their own vehicles. Russian forces stationed in the town left via the same evacuation routes, thus "using residents as human shields," the Ukrainian military added.

Russia destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant's dam on the Dnipro River on June 6, sparking a large-scale humanitarian and environmental disaster across southern Ukraine.

As the Institute of the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest update, the flooding caused by the dam's collapse had "heavily disrupted" Russian defensive positions on the river's east bank, particularly Russian first-line positions in Hola Prystan and Oleshky.

According to the ISW, Russian troops were likely forced to retreat from the towns of Hola Prystan and Oleshky due to the flooding. They had previously used those positions to shell the regional capital of Kherson and other nearby settlements on the west bank.

‘They are destroying us.’ People plea to escape flooded Russian-occupied areas

Editor’s note: For this story, we spoke to people living or having family in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. For their safety, they are identified by first name only. After destroying the Nova Kakhovka dam and stranding thousands of Ukrainians in the catastrophic flood zone, Russians prevent…

The Kyiv IndependentDaria Shulzhenko