Officials expected the water level to continue to rise after the sudden collapse of the Kakhovka dam on Tuesday, 70 km east of the city of Kherson, despite slowing water flow .
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and nearby hydroelectric plant, located in an area controlled by Moscow for more than a year, while Russian officials have blamed the dam’s collapse on Ukrainian bombardment of the disputed area where the river separates the two banks.
Residents waded through the deep waters that flooded their homes, as video clips flooded social media showing rescuers evacuating people from flooded villages to safe areas, and another recording showed water filling the streets of the city of Nova Kakhovska, which is under Russian control, on the east side of the city the river.
In Ukrainian-controlled areas on the western side, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson military administration, predicted in a video that water levels would rise another meter in the next 20 hours.
He said, “The power of the flood has diminished somewhat, but the water will continue to flow due to the great damage to the dam.
In the same context, the British Ministry of Defence, which publishes regular updates on the war, said that the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir had reached record levels before its collapse.
Although the dam did not completely collapse, the ministry warned that its structure could suffer more damage over the next few days, which could cause more flooding.
The dam, in addition to the power plant, helps supply electricity, irrigation and drinking water to a large area of southern Ukraine, including Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014 .
Government and United Nations officials have warned of a human and environmental disaster that will take days to assess and then even longer to recover.
The collapse of the dam, which both sides had long feared, added a new dimension to the Russian war, which has now entered its sixteenth month.
Ukrainian forces are expected to prepare for a long-awaited counterattack in areas along more than 1,000 kilometers of front line to the east and south.
He has at least 7
Russian news agency Tass quoted the Moscow-appointed mayor of Nova Kakhovka as saying that at least 7 people were missing after water from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam flooded nearby areas . Ukrainian officials said around 42,000 people were at risk of flooding in areas under Russian or Ukrainian control along the Dnipro River, and a UN aid official warned of “serious consequences and large scale”. Authorities on Tuesday evacuated more than 900 people from the town of about 45,000 people under Russian control on the left bank of the Dnipro. Ukrainian officials said members of about 80 communities in the Kherson region were at risk of flooding.
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