53 Ukrainians Missing After Nepal-Tibet Floods as Experts Warn of Second Flood

Fifty-three Ukrainian citizens are considered missing after catastrophic floods and landslides devastated communities along the Nepal-Tibet border, killing at least 165 people and leaving more than 1,000 unaccounted for across the disaster zone. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said it had received a report that contact was lost with a group of 46 Ukrainian tourists on Wednesday morning. Nepal’s Tourist Police later put the total number of missing Ukrainians at 53.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. There is currently no information indicating that Ukrainians are among those confirmed dead or injured, the ministry said. Eight reports have also been submitted to the Foreign Ministry hotline by relatives who lost contact with people already included on the list of missing Ukrainians. Ukraine’s embassies in India and China are working with local authorities to establish their whereabouts, while Ukraine’s honorary consul in Nepal has also joined the effort. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukrainian diplomats were working closely with local authorities to locate the missing citizens. “We are also closely monitoring reports regarding Ukrainian citizens missing in the affected areas,” Sybiha said. Sybiha also expressed condolences to Nepal over the deaths and widespread destruction, saying Ukraine stood in solidarity with the Nepalese people. More than 1,000 reported missing The disaster struck the Himalayan border region on Wednesday morning, sending a massive torrent of mud, rocks and water through communities along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river systems. Other Topics of Interest France Warns of New Hybrid Threat After Leipzig Drone Attack France’s intelligence chief warns the Leipzig incident could foreshadow attacks on defense, energy and communications infrastructure. AFP reported Thursday that at least 162 bodies had been recovered in Nepal, while Chinese authorities reported three deaths on the Tibetan side of the border. Authorities on both sides were searching for more than 1,000 people reported missing or unaccounted for, although the figures continued to change as rescuers reached isolated areas. On the Chinese side, authorities said 558 people remained missing in Tibet’s Gyirong County, including 260 foreign nationals. Nearly 800 emergency workers and more than 150 vehicles were deployed, alongside search dogs, drones and boats. In Nepal, hundreds of tourists were still unaccounted for, many of them foreign visitors traveling through one of the main routes connecting Kathmandu with Tibet. The missing include citizens of Ukraine, India, the United States, Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and South Korea, according to officials cited by AFP. The region is popular with international trekkers as well as pilgrims traveling toward Mount Kailash, considered sacred by Buddhists and Hindus. Videos from the disaster zone showed a towering wall of mud and debris engulfing buildings and sweeping away cars and buses. “Entire villages and market areas have been wiped out,” David Fisher, the Nepal representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told AFP. Rescuers have been forced to work through deep mud and unstable terrain, while damaged roads and communications have complicated efforts to reach some of the hardest-hit communities. Chinese rescue officials said heavy equipment could not yet reach parts of the main disaster zone because of narrow mountain roads and continuing instability upstream. Glacial collapse, not an earthquake The cause of the catastrophe was initially unclear. Nepalese officials first suggested that an earthquake may have triggered a landslide that blocked a river before the natural dam collapsed, releasing a devastating rush of water downstream. But the US Geological Survey later revised its assessment. An event initially recorded as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake was instead caused by a glacial collapse and subsequent debris flow, the agency said after examining seismic data and satellite imagery. The finding shifted attention toward the growing dangers associated with unstable glaciers, melting ice and steep Himalayan terrain. A preliminary assessment by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) suggested a rock-and-ice avalanche occurred in Nepal and blocked the Lhende River, setting off the cascading flood. A similar glacial flood struck the same border region in July 2025, originating near China’s Gyirong County and surging into Nepal’s Rasuwa District. Threat of another flood remains Even as rescuers search for survivors, experts warn the danger may not be over. Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks at ICIMOD, told AFP that a blockage remained upstream along the Nepal-China border river, raising the possibility of another sudden flood. Overnight rain has also increased the risk of fresh landslides and rockfalls. One unusual feature of Wednesday’s disaster was the apparent absence of significant rainfall immediately beforehand. Hatim Sharif, a hydrologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told AFP that such an event could bypass conventional flood-warning systems built largely around rainfall and rising river levels. Once a fast-moving wall of mud becomes visible, he said, people may have almost no time to escape. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.