Broken houses, missing residents, destroyed infrastructure: what remains of Nova Kakhovka under occupation

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region has been under occupation, and it has suffered enormous destruction.

Chairman Volodymyr Kovalenko said that most of the residents have left, and the infrastructure has been practically destroyed.

“From a population of 65 thousand, 14 to 17 thousand remain in the city. Most of them live in rural settlements of the community,” Kovalenko noted.

According to him, a significant part of the city’s territory has become uninhabitable. Dniprovskyi Avenue — the main artery of the city — has been turned into a line of defense with concrete structures, positions have been dug in the park, and there are even buried Russian soldiers.

“On ​​Dniprovskyi Avenue, Russian soldiers have occupied apartments in buildings where Ukrainians still live. And they let residents into their homes with passes,” says the mayor.

Of the residential areas, only the Sokil factory microdistrict has been more or less preserved, where the remaining life of the city is concentrated. Other areas are half-empty, some high-rise buildings are used as housing for Russian military personnel disguised as civilians.

Communal services operate partially and irregularly:

“Garbage is taken out in new buildings two or three times a week, in the old part of the city once a week or even less often. Water is supplied intermittently, as is electricity and communications,” Kovalenko said.

Education, culture, and medical institutions have also been hit: schools No. 2 and No. 6 were destroyed, a museum, a gallery, a children’s art house, and a pension fund were destroyed.

Amid the constant threat of shelling and the lack of stable infrastructure, the humanitarian situation in the city remains critical.

Nova Kakhovka is a city on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, near the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. The occupation of the city began on February 24, 2022, literally a few hours after the invasion began. Local residents recall that Russian troops quickly occupied the city, as it was of strategic importance due to the hydroelectric power plant and the crossing of the Dnieper.

Russian soldiers shell Nova Kakhovka, which they also occupied, on the left bank of the Kherson region. In this way, they are trying to force people to leave the old part of the city.