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Rescuers risk lives to extract Ukrainians from flood zone

Following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, Ukrainian rescue workers in private boats provided a lifeline to civilians trapped in flooded areas of the Russian-occupied eastern bank.

By Associated Press

June 17, 2023

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ukrainian servicemen help residents to get down from the roof into rescue boats during an evacuation in a flooded neighborhood near Oleshky, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 7. In the early days of flooding, Ukrainian rescue workers, braving the drones and dangers of Russian snipers, were able to cross the river to evacuate civilians in the flood-affected areas of the Russian-occupied eastern bank.
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A church is surrounded by water in a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, June 8.
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Ukrainian servicemen ride on a speedboat in a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, June 8. Many small boats carrying volunteers and Ukrainian soldiers have shuttled across from Ukrainian-held areas on the west bank to rescue desperate civilians stuck on rooftops, in attics and in other areas amid the deluge.
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Local resident Olena gets on a small boat as she is evacuated by Ukrainian servicemen from a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, June 8.
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A volunteer carries a woman as she is evacuated from a flooded Kardashynka village of the left bank Dnipro river, in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, June 9.
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Alyona Shkrygalova carries her bags after being evacuated from the village of Kardashynka on the left bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, June 9.
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Tetyana, right, hugs her neighbor Hanna after being evacuated from a flooded Kardashynka village on the left bank Dnipro river, in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, June 9.
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Houses are seen underwater in the flooded town of Oleshky, Ukraine, Saturday, June 10. Extensive flooding from the catastrophic destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6 devastated towns along the lower Dnieper River in the embattled Kherson region.
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Ukrainian servicemen arrive by boat with civilians during evacuation from the flooded Kardashynka village on the left bank of the Dnipro river near Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, June 9.
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Volunteer Valerii Lobitsky smokes a cigarette as he sits on a boat after evacuating civilians from the left bank of Dnipro river in Kherson, Ukraine, Saturday, June 10. Lobitskyi said frequent shelling often derailed rescue missions. So far Lobitskyi has been shot at once and on another occasion had to abort a mission to rescue an elderly woman after a close call with a Russian motor boat.
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Emergency teams help rush to safety an injured evacuee who had came under fire from Russian forces while trying to flee by boat from the Russian-occupied east bank of Dnieper River to Ukrainian-held Kherson, on the western bank, in Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, June 11.
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Emergency teams help rush to safety an injured evacuee who had came under fire from Russian forces while trying to flee by boat from the Russian-occupied east bank of Dnieper River to Ukrainian-held Kherson, on the western bank, in Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, June 11.
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Emergency teams help rush to safety Vitalii Shpalin, injured evacuee who had came under fire from Russian forces while trying to flee by boat from the Russian-occupied east bank of a flooded Dnieper River to Ukrainian-held Kherson, on the western bank, in Kherson, Ukraine on Sunday, June 11. Ukrainian authorities said Russian troops attacked boats with civilians.
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Vitalii Shpalin, 60, sits on a bed in a hospital in Kherson region, Ukraine, Monday, June 12, after he was shot on Sunday while fleeing on a boat from a flooded Kardashynka village on the left bank of the Dnipro river in Ukraine. He said their vessel had been shot at by Russian soldiers positioned in a nearby house. Shpalin saw them. "They (Russians) let the boats through, those coming to rescue people," he said. "But when the boats were full of people, they started shooting."
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Ukrainian servicemen sit inside a boat as they prepare to go to their positions in Kherson, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 13.

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