The Russian occupation administration deliberately hid the real number of victims of the great flood in the Kherson region after Russia blew up the huge dam of the Gakhovskaya HPP in June, reports Associated Pressreferring to medics, rescue volunteers, people who fled from the occupied territory, reports Ukrainian Pravda. Thus, only in the city of Oleska, the real death toll would exceed the number of deaths declared by the Russians by several hundred.

Russia, which did not respond to AP questions for this article, said 59 people had drowned in territory it controls, some 408 square kilometers of flooded areas. But only in the Russian-occupied city of Olesky, whose population, according to the Ukrainian military, was 16,000 at the time of the flood, their number is at least several hundred. The exact death toll in Oleshki, the most populous town in the occupied zone before the war, may never be known, even if Ukrainian forces regain the territory and can conduct an on-the-spot investigation.

Russian authorities took control of issuing death certificates, immediately removing bodies not claimed by family, and prevented local medical workers and volunteers from dealing with the dead, threatening them when they disobeyed orders.

People who spoke to the AP said mass graves had been dug and unidentified bodies removed and never seen again.

“Not only Russia, not even Ukraine is aware of the scale of this tragedy,” said Svitlana, a nurse who first monitored the process of collecting death certificates and then fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory. “It’s a huge tragedy.”

The AP also cited information from a Telegram channel linked to Olesky, where residents reported bodies lying in the streets, bodies collected by police and missing people.

“Taken together, this information reveals a deliberate attempt by Russian authorities to hide the true cost of the dam collapse, which the AP believes was likely caused by Moscow. Residents of Oleskyi fear that their long-term trauma risks being forgotten as the war continues and their beloved, once idyllic home gradually depopulates, AP reports.