“Life goes on in all settlements along the Dnieper. I just walked along the streets of Novaya Kakhovka. People are moving around calmly, gas stations, shops and even businesses are open.”

The video, published by the pro-Russian governor of the Kherson region Vladimir Saldo the day after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, has become a symbol of the situation of the inhabitants of the left bank of the Dnieper, controlled by the occupation authorities.

Published in the official press, as here in News Moscow, this video was supposed to prove that “Everything’s under control” had the exact opposite effect: while the governor was speaking into the camera, one could see behind him how the waters gradually overwhelmed the entire first floor of the Palace of Culture in Novaya Kakhovka, the city to which the hydroelectric power station of the same name belongs. attached .

Opposition newspaper Jellyfish, based in Latvia, recalls that Vladimir Leontiev, the “mayor” appointed by the Russians to head this locality occupied for more than a year, initially worked to deny the destruction of the dam, arguing that “All [était] calm down [sa] city”, then any flooding of Novaya Kakhovka, when the water is already