"I built a house and planted a tree here. I've had many, many proposals to leave, but how could I leave everything?”

One of the thousands of victims in Kherson whose lives continue to be turned upside down by the Ukraine conflict and the ensuing devastation.

They have been blasted from all angles. Residents here have lived through occupation, ongoing shelling and now a disastrous flood.

In Ukraine, it has been almost six weeks since the Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for what has been described as an "ecological disaster" with its effects likely to last for decades.

City residents are still clearing up the damage from their neighborhoods and homes. It's yet another blow, in a succession of blights they have endured since Russia launched its campaign in Ukraine last February.

Furniture and personal belongings remain strewn across the ground as locals wait for the debris in their houses to be cleared and for their homes to become habitable again.

Most flood victims can't afford to pick up and just leave the area. The older ones cannot even begin to comprehend the thought of starting all over again.

The dam is upstream of Kherson city on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. Russia controls the territory on the left bank of the river. Ukraine holds the right side.

The dam explosion and collapse has impacted over 100,000 people. Long and immediate term losses are estimated at $50 billion.  

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"Nobody imagined this happening," resident Sergei Simonenka tells us. "What kind of idiot or moron do you have to be to blow up a dam? I have no words. I don't know how to explain it.”

Last year, Russian troops occupied Kherson for nine months. Today the city is on the frontline of a conflict that shows no sign of ending soon.

Meanwhile, the monumental clean-up carries on as shells explode nearby. 

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