Major dam in southern Ukraine ‘blown up’, unleashing floodwaters
- Ukraine and Russia trade blame after breach in the Soviet-era Nova Kakhovka dam
- Evacuation orders given for settlements as Ukraine warns of widespread flooding
Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Tuesday of blowing up a dam and causing widespread flooding in southern Ukraine, endangering Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and threatening drinking water supplies as both sides in the war rushed to evacuate residents.
The South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russian forces blew up the Soviet-era Nova Kakhovka dam in occupied Kherson region.
Unverified videos on social media showed intense explosions around the dam and water surging through. The dam, 30 metres tall and 3.2km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river.
It holds water equal to that in the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah and also supplies water to Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.
“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the Ukrainian military said on Facebook.
