Voice of Ukraine

Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 469):

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
Psalm 19:7-9

We are still processing the Kakhovka Dam tragedy. I guess, for many of us, this state is similar to the initial shock of the beginning of the full-scale invasion. We knew it was possible, we knew the Russians could do it, yet we refused to believe it.

I saw an interview with a village resident in the Kherson region. The journalist asked him what he thought about the dam’s destruction, and he said they knew it would happen because they had seen the Russian army flee from the Mykolaiv and Kherson region. He said they either loot everything or bring utter destruction to ensure life is impossible there. What shocked me was the matter-of-fact tone he had.

The evacuation and rescue operations continue. Most volunteers are trying to rescue animals, as people had had time to evacuate before it was too late. There are no casualty reports from the territories under Ukraine’s control now, but we may learn about casualties once the water recedes. Unfortunately, there are reports about at least three people killed by the flooding in the currently occupied part of the Kherson region, and there may be more casualties as bedridden people or the elderly had little chance to escape the rising water. The occupational authorities failed to organize an evacuation. They put up checkpoints to prevent people from leaving the flooded region and only allowed sanctioned evacuation to the territory of Russia.

There was a video of a family waving to a drone from a rooftop. A mother and her two children were trying to get someone’s attention as the water was already reaching the second floor of their house, and they had spent almost a whole day without food and water. The drone operator brought them some bottled water and later Ukrainian military managed to get to their house on a boat and evacuate them and their dogs to safety. The amazing element of the story is that it took place in the currently occupied Oleshky village.

Tonight, I saw several volunteers post brief notes with the amazement of solidarity they had seen. They said that even though everyone was barely functioning because of the shock, they saw powerful support and provision from everyone they turned to. One of them said that tragedies like this set a massive Ukrainian wheel of justice and empathy in motion, and there is no stopping it.

Please, pray for the Kherson region, for everyone affected by the flooding, and for everyone still waiting to be rescued. Pray for God’s miracles to be manifested in the flooded areas. And pray for the enemy to flee and for justice to be restored in Ukraine.