Dhe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has criticized the international aid organizations for their alleged passivity after the flood disaster caused by a dam explosion. “Every dead person is a judgment for the existing international architecture, for international organizations that have forgotten how to save lives,” he said in his daily video address on Wednesday evening. He did not say how many Ukrainians died in the floods.
Instead, he spoke of 2,000 people who had been rescued in the Ukrainian part of the Cherson region, which was particularly hard hit by the floods. However, the situation is difficult in the Russian-occupied part of the area. Selenskyj accused the Russian troops of abandoning the people there – and torpedoing Ukrainian rescue attempts. In this context, he criticized international aid organizations such as the Red Cross, which he believed should be more active in this region.
The Ukrainian President had previously expressed his criticism in an interview with “Welt”, “Bild” and “Politico” in Kiev. He severely reproached the Russian troops on the south bank of the Dnipro they had conquered: “If our forces try to get the people out, the occupiers will shoot at them from a distance.” But he thanked them for bilateral aid commitments from abroad . He called French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discussed concrete offers of help.
The Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River was badly damaged by an explosion on Tuesday night. Ukraine and the West blame Russia for the destruction. Moscow denies this and in turn accuses Kiev of shelling the dam for military reasons.
