Yuriy, a 56-year-old Ukrainian farmer, stands chest-deep in water in his village of Afanasiyivka, gazing around in bewilderment. A week ago, he was growing vegetables and fruit and grazing his cows. Now his land in the Mykolaiv region is deep under murky green water. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam has caused massive flooding in the regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv. The flooding was yet another crippling blow to farmers in the regions, who were already struggling to plant crops due to heavy shelling and the need to de-mine their land. “What’s underwater here could have fed several large families for a year,” says Yuriy, watching drowned ducklings float past. He places the blame squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin took everything away from us,” he says. According to Ukraine’s ministry of agricultural policy, several million tonnes of crops could be lost due to the flooding. On the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region, 10,000 hectares of agricultural land were flooded, while the flooded area on the Russian-controlled left bank is several times larger, the ministry estimated. The small village of Afanasiyivka is still partially underwater due to flooding from the local Ingulets River.