We came across the following claim on Twitter:

According to the tweet, the image of dogs caught in floodwater was taken in the flooded Kherson region in Southern Ukraine, the scene where the Nova Kakhova dam collapsed on 6 June 2023. According to Reuters, the dam supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and also to the Russian controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which gets cooling water from the reservoir.

Both Russia and Ukraine have denied responsibility for the blowing up of the dam and the flooding that ensued. Ukraine blamed Russian occupying forces, which have had control of both the dam and adjacent town since last year’s invasion, of blowing it up in an attempt to ward off a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

On the other hand, Russian officials said Kyiv sabotaged the dam to deprive Russian-controlled Crimea of the fresh water it receives from the reservoir and to distract attention from the counteroffensive.

While it is not immediately clear which side was directly responsible for the attack, we conducted a reverse image search on the poor dogs that were allegedly affected by the deluge. The image, while being genuine and not manipulated in any way appears to not have been taken in Ukrainian floodwater. Instead, it originates from Thailand, where dogs have been displaced by severe flooding in Ubon Ratchathani province in 2022.

The image, credited to Soi Dog Foundation, an organization founded to assist and improve the welfare of dogs and cats in Asia shows the work of Soi Dog helping animals that have been displaced by flooding. While the image is genuine then, the claim that this photo of dogs in floodwater was from the 2023 Nova Kakhovka dam breach in Ukraine is false. The image was taken in Thailand, where the dogs had been displaced by severe flooding in 2022.