Demydiv, Ukraine on April 6, 2022. Photo by Andre Luis Alves/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ukrainian troops deliberately flooded the village of Demydiv to stop a Russian attack on Kyiv.
The flood that broke out in late February prevented Russian tanks from advancing on the capital.
Villagers told the New York Times they were glad to make the sacrifice to “save” Kyiv from Putin’s troops.
Ukrainians say they have no regrets after deliberately flooding the village of Demydiv to prevent Russian tanks from reaching Kyiv, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Just a day after the war began, on February 25, Ukrainian troops opened a nearby dam to flood Demydiv, north of Kyiv, and the surrounding countryside, the Times reported.
Satellite images from March showed flooding in the Irpin River basin northwest of Kyiv. But it wasn’t immediately clear who or what caused the floods until now, after Ukrainians claimed credit for the self-sacrificing defense movement.
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The idea was to prevent a tank attack on Kyiv and give Ukrainian troops there more time to prepare their defense of the city. Flooding created a sea ahead of approaching Russian convoys and reportedly prevented the troops from advancing.
The floods also prevented Demydiv from becoming a frontline in the war, the report said, as the village managed to avoid horrifying scenes of mass killings of civilians like those in the Kiev suburb of Bucha.
“Everyone understands it and nobody regrets it for a moment,” resident Antonina Kostuchenko told The Times. “We saved Kyiv!”
More than two months later, water and flooding are still in Demydiv – but Kyiv is still in Ukrainian hands.
Unable to capture the capital, Russian forces withdrew from the region in late March to focus on a renewed offensive in the country’s eastern Donbass region.
Read the original article on Business Insider