The Telegraph published this video item, entitled “Ukrainians navigate floodwaters from the burst Kakhovka dam-hit Kherson | Dispatch” – below is their description.
As passenger ferries go, the new commuter service between Kherson and the village of Zymivnyk is not exactly P&O standard. The boat itself only carries six people, and its sole source of power is Volodymr Kibsi, its cheerful but exhausted-looking oarsman.
Since Monday, however, when floodwaters from the burst Kakhovka dam hit Kherson, the elderly dinghy has been the only safe way for Zymivnyk’s 500 residents to come and go.
In quieter, drier times, their route into Kherson is a scenic ten-minute stroll across a wooded meadow. But with five metres of floodwater having arrived in the last three days, the meadow is now a lake, and Zymivnyk itself effectively an island.
“The boat is just one that I borrowed from my place of work,” said Mr Kibsi, 31, who is providing the ferry on a voluntary basis, as he rowed off from the Kherson side. “It’s tiring, but people appreciate it, and I like to hear the stories that they have to tell.”
Travelling on the ferry – which locals have nicknamed the Ukha, or “Fish Soup” – is not without risk. Yesterday, Russian troops on the Kremlin-controlled side of the River Dnipro shelled boats delivering humanitarian supplies to other flood-hit areas of Kherson. There are also fears that dislodged landmines may be lurking in the floodwaters.
However, the dangers have not stopped Mr Kibsi from maintaining a certain minimum standard of service. The Fish Soup operates to an hourly schedule from 7am to 7pm, leaving from a makeshift quayside next to a Soviet-era housing block on the Kherson side.
Mr Kibsi then takes around 15 minutes to row across the lake to Zymivnyk, navigating his way carefully through the tops of submerged trees. “Occasionally, I even get tips from passengers, like cans of energy drinks,” he said.
Halfway out into lake, Mr Kibsi had to struggle with the oars as a stiff breeze blew up. The ferry was also briefly halted by a passing Ukrainian army boat, who warned the passengers that they were risking their lives by being out on the waters. “How else are we supposed to get to and from our homes?” they replied.
On the Zymivnyk side, where a road now leads directly into the floodwaters, the dinghy moored up at a makeshift jetty of old car tyres and planks of wood. Living next door was Volodymr Kovsh, whose carefully-tended front garden has now become a messy lakeside beach, with discarded beer bottles and other detritus bobbing in the water.
On the wall next to his front gate, Mr Kovsh had used a blue marker pen to record the high-tide marks of the flood, which showed it peaking at 530 am on Wednesday. Since then, it had dropped by more than a foot, suggesting the worst was now over.
Nonetheless, Mr Kovsh expected the Fish Soup to be in demand for some time to come. There was, he pointed out, a road route available from Zymivnyk to Kherson, but it was a circuitous 45- minute drive, and went through the town of Chornobaivka, which saw heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops last year.
“There’s still lots of unexploded ordnance there, and if you have to get out of your car at any point, you don’t know what you might step on,” he explained, as Mr Kibsi loaded up with passengers bound for Kherson. “That’s why people prefer this ferry service instead.”
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