On June 6, 2023, Russian forces blew up the dam that created the Kakhovka Reservoir, one of the largest in Europe. Built back in the 1950s, the huge reservoir had a volume of 18 cubic kilometers of water – almost the entire drainage of the Dnipro – which created this artificial lake. It not only provided electricity at the nearby Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, but also supplied water to several large channels that irrigated agriculture in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in Crimea.

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam resulted not only in floods that killed dozens of people and left tens of thousands homeless, but also dried up the once prosperous settlements on the banks. Most of the affected villages and towns are located in the occupied territory, but there are also hundreds of settlements left without water in the territories controlled by Ukraine.
Now, a year later, Kyiv Post visits settlements that used to be on the shores of a manmade lake.