Two years after the Nova Kakhovka dam was destroyed in Ukraine, nature has returned in abundance to the drained land in a ‘big natural experiment’ – but it could be lost as quickly as it appeared

At the southern tip of Europe’s largest river island, the ground falls away into a vast and unexpected vista. From a high, rocky ledge on Khortytsia Island, the view opens on to a sea of swaying young willows and mirrored lagoons. Some of the trees are already many metres tall, but this is a young forest. Just a few years ago, all of it was under water.

“This is Velykyi Luh – the Great Meadow,” says Valeriy Babko, a retired history teacher and army veteran, standing on the former reservoir shoreline at Malokaterynivka village. For him, this extraordinary new-old environment represents more than nature alone.

Water flows over the collapsed Kakhovka dam on 7 June 2023. Photograph: AP