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Paper short abstract

On June 6 2023 Russian occupation forces blew up Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. More than 80 settlements were flooded. The exact number of victims is currently unknown. This man-made natural disaster gave rise to narratives about flooding as an opportunity to escape from occupation.

Paper long abstract

The sudden flooding of the lands due to the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station by Russian occupation forces gave rise to new narratives, in particular stories about escaping from the occupation. People took the opportunity to leave the occupation, avoiding filtration. Ukrainians “on oars”, that is, on boats and on homemade rafts, left the occupied flooded villages at night. This became possible due to the spill of water and the withdrawal of Russian troops.

I wrote down the story of a woman who made a raft from two empty refrigerators and took herself and her paralyzed husband out of the occupation. Another young woman in a boat saved herself, her mother, her child and her pets. Narrators emphasize that escaping by water was dangerous both because of the possibility of being shot at and because of the mines that were in the water and that exploded upon contact. Implementing the decision required considerable physical effort from the woman, since she had to flee quietly, silently, that is, she could not start the boat's engine, and she had to row with oars. The narrator unfolds his narrative as a heroic, not a tragic, story. He mentions the possible victims of the flooding in passing, but he dwells on the description of people who themselves flee from the occupation and save their relatives in considerable detail, returning to these plots several times.