After the dam collapse, Russian-controlled areas have been abandoned

NATALYA WAS one of the fortunate ones. On June 8th she managed to get a connection to speak to her friends in Oleshky, across the Dnieper river on the Russian-occupied east bank. But the news was not good. The town, which sits in lowland, south of the , is one of the in Kherson region. Most of it is under water. Her friends survived only by climbing onto rooftops. They had asked Russian forces to help them evacuate, but were met with indifference. “My eyes are burning from tears,” Natalya says. “I’ve been crying all night.”Those Khersonians living on the Ukrainian-controlled west bank have been dealt a double blow of war and ecological catastrophe. But for many of them, the immediate comparison is with those living across the Dnieper in occupied territories, where prospects are even worse. People are learning about abandoned loved ones over agonising phone calls—when they manage to get a connection. In November, Russian troops pulled back from the western bank, thereby splitting families, friends and neighbours left on different sides of a line of control. Now they are also separated by a wall of dangerously contaminated water.