About 42,150 people are at risk from flooding on both banks of the Dnipro River after the Nova Kakhovka Dam was blown up: the peak of the flood wave is scheduled for today. This was reported by the Guardian citing Ukrainian officials. And on the website of the Ukrainian presidency, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that due to the explosion of the Kakhovka dam, "an oil slick of at least <> tons has formed that is carried by the current to the Black Sea. We cannot yet predict how much of the chemicals, fertilizers and petroleum products stored in flooded areas will end up in rivers and the sea. The evacuation of people from the flooded area is underway: almost eighty settlements are at risk".
"Our services are helping all those involved, but we can only intervene on the territory controlled by Ukraine," President Zelensky wrote on Telegram. In the part occupied by Moscow, the Russians are not even trying to help people." "This demonstrates once again the cynicism with which Russia treats the people whose land it has conquered and what Russia really brings to Europe and the world. Russian terrorists have proven once again that they are a threat to all that is alive."
ANSA Agency
Ukraine: Kakhovka dam hit, Kiev blames Russians. Urgent meeting of the UN Council - Europe
Kiev blames the Russians. Moscow denies: "It was them." Many villages flooded. Melons: criminal act THE VIDEO (ANSA)
According to Russian emergency services, about 2,700 homes were flooded after the explosion and 1,300 people were evacuated and evacuated, TASSreported. A state of emergency has been declared throughout the Kherson region.
The operational and tactical situation has developed in favor of Russian forces, says Vladimir Saldo, pro-Russian governor of the Kherson region. "From a military point of view, the operational and tactical situation is favorable to Russian forces," he said on the Soloviev Live television broadcast, explaining "how the Ukrainian army's attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant would affect the defenses of Russian forces in the region."
Attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam: submerged houses
The floods damaged nearby bridges in the southern region of Mykolaiv, the head of the military administration of the city of Snihurivka Ivan Kukhta was quoted by CNN as saying. According to Kukhta, a bridge in the village of Yelyzavetivka was destroyed and another in the village of Halahanivka was "completely submerged by water." He added that authorities are evacuating residents from homes in Snihurivka.
And it is an exchange of accusations between Ukraine and Russia after the dam, an 18 million cubic meter basin, built in 1958, strategic to feed Crimea and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, blew up. For Kiev, Russia has "deliberately blown up the dam" and "the world must react." Moscow denies and reverses the accusation: "A terrorist act by Kiev to stop our troops."
Many dead, thousands evacuees. Several Russian soldiers were swept away by the waters: many were killed or wounded in the chaos, Ukrainian soldiers told CNN. Captain Andrei Pidlisnyi reported that when the dam collapsed "no one on the side of Russia was able to escape. The head of the Russian city administration Vladimir Leontyev, quoted by RIA Novosti, said that seven people were missing following the explosion of the hydroelectric plant and the flooding of the area near Novaya Kakhovka. "We are looking for the missing, there were shepherds in that area."
American intelligence tends to hold Russia guilty. Urgent meeting of the UN Security Council: "In any case it is the fault of the Russian invasion," says Guterres. "It is criminal to damage the dam," says Prime Minister Meloni. Cardinal Zuppi, the Pope's envoy to Kiev, was received by Zelensky. "A useful mission on the path of peace", comments the Holy See. For Kiev "the formula of peace can only be Ukrainian".