Museum and home of famous Ukrainian painter flooded

The home of famed Ukrainian painter Polina Raiko is under water as a result of the Kakhovka dam destruction, the project manager of the Polina Raiko Kherson Oblast Charitable Foundation Semen Khramtsov reported on Facebook.

Khramtsov announced on June 7 that  Raiko's home-turned-museum was completely flooded but that the employees of the museum were safe. He added that food, medecine, and water are needed.

The home is located in the city of Oleshky which has faced particularly high flood waters.

Polina Raiko was a self-taught painter and an important figure in Ukrainian naïve artistry. She began painting at the age of 69.  In six years, she covered her house in frescoes, including the gate, garage doors, and fence, as well as the gravestones of her relatives.

Raiko passed away in 2004 at the age of 75 but her home became a museum and a national cultural monument of Ukraine. Polina Raiko Kherson Oblast Charitable Foundation was created in the same year.

‘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