One month after Ukraine dam breach, villagers in Russian-controlled areas still live in destroyed homes

Andrey Domaev, 42 year-old, stays inside a damaged house after floodwaters receded following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in the town of Hola Prystan in the Kherson region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

HOLA PRYSTAN, Russian-controlled Ukraine (Reuters) - Walking through what remains of his home, Leonid Garul points to the ceiling and the walls to show where the floodwaters reached last month when the massive Kakhovka dam was breached in southern Ukraine.

A former sitting room now resembles a junkyard, with couches, tables and other bits of waterlogged debris piled in heaps. The walls, completely stripped of their plaster, are now just straw and mud.