In Alyoshki near Kherson, the house-museum of the artist Polina Raiko was flooded

After the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam in the flooded city of Alyosha, the house-museum of the people’s artist Polina Raiko completely went under water. The self-taught artist covered the walls of the house with unique murals. Custodians who worked in the house-museum doubt that the mural will withstand the consequences of flooding.

Polina (Pelageya) Raiko belonged to the artists of “naive art”. She started painting at the age of 69 and created dozens of paintings, as well as painted her house and plot. After the death of the artist in 2004, activists created the Polina Raiko Foundation, which was engaged in preserving her creative heritage. Before the beginning of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, art festivals and film shootings took place in the house-museum. It is protected by the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Cultural Heritage”.

The founder of the fund, Kherson artist Vyacheslav Mashnytsky, disappeared soon after the start of the war. Local residents who ensured the safety of the house-museum managed to evacuate after the flooding of Alyoshek on June 6. The representative of the Rayko Foundation, the artist Semyon Khramtsov, reported on Facebook that the house could be destroyed by water flows.

• It became known about the breakthrough of the Kakhovskaya HPP dam on the Dnieper on the night of June 6. Due to the uncontrolled release of water from the reservoir, settlements on both banks of the Dnieper began to flood. The authorities of the Kherson region reported the flooding of 600 km² of territory.
• Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of undermining the dam. In addition to this, there is a version that the cause of the disaster was the previous damage to the station. The authorities of Ukraine appealed to the International Criminal Court in The Hague with a request to investigate the destruction of the dam.