Rescuers are braving snipers as they rush to ferry Ukrainians from Russia-occupied flood zones

KHERSON, Ukraine — At last, help came for Vitalii Shpalin. From a distance, he spotted the small Ukrainian rescue boat traversing floodwaters that had submerged the 60-year-old’s entire neighborhood after a catastrophic dam collapse in the country’s embattled south.

He and others boarded with sighs of relief — interrupted suddenly by the crackle of bullets.

Shpalin ducked, and a bullet scraped his back. He felt one pierce his arm, then his leg. The boat’s rescue worker cried into the radio for reinforcements. “Our boat is leaking,” Shpalin heard him say. An older man died before his eyes, his lips turning blue.

Their vessel, taking civilians to safety in Kherson city across the river, had been shot by Russian soldiers positioned in a nearby house, according to Ukrainian officials and witnesses on the boat.

“They (Russians) let the boats through, those coming to rescue people,” Shpalin said. “But when the boats were full of people, they started shooting.”

Massive flooding from the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6 has devastated towns along the lower Dnieper River in the Kherson region, a front line in the war. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of causing the breach.

In the chaotic early days of flooding, Ukrainian rescue workers in private boats provided a lifeline to desperate civilians trapped in flooded areas of the Russian-occupied eastern bank — that is, if the rescue missions could brave the drones and Russian snipers.

The boats have carried volunteers and plainclothes servicemen, shuttling across from Ukrainian-held areas on the western bank to evacuate people stuck on rooftops, in attics and elsewhere.

Now, that window is closing. As floodwaters recede, rescuers are increasingly cut off by putrid mud. And more Russian soldiers are returning, reasserting control.

Accounts of Russian assistance vary among survivors, but many evacuees and residents accuse Russian authorities of doing little or nothing to help displaced residents. Some civilians said evacuees were sometimes forced to present Russian passports if they wanted to leave.

Russia’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment about actions by authorities in the Russia-occupied flood zone, or about the attack on the rescue boat.

The AP spoke with 10 families rescued from the eastern bank, as well as with rescue workers, officials and victims injured on the rescue missions.

“The Russian Federation provided nothing. No aid, no evacuation. They abandoned people alone to deal with the disaster,” said Yulia Valhe, evacuated from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky. “I have my friends who stayed there, people I know who need help. At the moment, I can’t do anything except to say to them, ‘Hold on.’”

At least 150 people have been rescued by Ukraine from Russian-controlled areas in the risky evacuation operations, government spokesperson Oleksandr Tolokonnikov said. It is a small fraction compared to the nearly 2,750 people rescued from flooded regions controlled by Ukraine.

A local organization Helping to Leave, which helps Ukrainians living under Russian occupation to escape, said it received requests from 3,000 people in the occupied zone, said Dina Urich, who heads the organization’s evacuation department.

“We will surely do everything we can, but we also cannot expose our people to danger,” Tolokonnikov said.

“Russians keep threatening us and fulfilling their threats by shooting people in the back,” he said.

Olha, another resident of Oleshky, said she had heard about the rescue missions, but didn’t know how to get on a list. “If we could, we would have done the same, but I didn’t know how,” she said, declining to give her last name for safety reasons.

Rescuers have often used information provided by relatives of those stranded.

Military drone pilots have searched for people and plotted routes through the fast-moving waters laden with debris, while navigating around Russian troop positions.

They also have delivered water, food and cigarettes to people with a note “from Santa.”

Valerii Lobitskyi, a volunteer rescuer, said shelling often derailed the missions.

He has been shot at once, and on another occasion had to abort a mission to rescue an older woman after a close call with a Russian motor boat.