The occupiers flooded the areas near the Kakhov reservoir, which were previously mined. This was announced on May 17 by the head of the United Press Center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, Nataliya Humeniuk, on the air of a national telethon broadcast by the Rada TV channel.

 "[The occupiers] are artificially raising the water in the Kakhovsky Reservoir, they are trying to provoke signs of man-made disaster, and they have created a trap for themselves. By flooding the areas of the coast that were mined, and after that, even in their publics, a big scandal broke out because they lost people due to the flooding of certain areas without prevention," she said.

 According to Humenyuk, that is why the occupiers are now trying to maneuver over mined areas with the help of boats taken from the local population. On the islands, which are a feature of the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, they are trying to take away what was stored, including ammunition, she said.

 Almost the entire Kherson region was captured by the Russian invaders at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, in February - March 2022. In November, the defense forces of Ukraine liberated the right-bank part of the Kherson region, together with the regional center, from the Russian occupiers.

 After that, the Russians began systematically shelling Kherson and other liberated settlements in the region.

 The left-bank part of the Kherson region remains under Russian occupation.