By midday Tuesday, authorities had evacuated 650 people, and another 420 had left on their own. A crowd of journalists, NGOs and residents welcomed about fifty people from Kherson.
Ukrainians and Russians blame each other for the disaster. The ecological, human and economic consequences of the destruction of this dam built by the Soviets in 1956 are not yet clear. But for Lyudmila, whose hands keep shaking, one thing is certain. "Now we are refugees, we have nothing," she says.