Ukrainian dam destroyed: eight dead in floods on the Russian side

Eight people died in Russian-controlled territories on the east bank of the Dnieper River, after part of the gigantic Kashovka Dam collapsed, causing flooding.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine's partially occupied Kherson province, said more than 5,800 people had been evacuated since Tuesday from Russian-held flooded areas, while "a total of 22,273 homes in 17 localities are flooded." 4,000 people are also threatened with no access to safe drinking water.

"The rising waters can last another 10 days"

The urgency is all the stronger as the dike threatens to break more widely. "According to forecasts, the rising waters can last another 10 days," he also said on Telegram. The water level in the urban district of Nova Kachovka, the town adjacent to the dam on the downstream bank, dropped by 2.5m from Tuesday's peak, but in Oleshky and Hola Prystan, opposite the Ukrainian city of Kherson, at the mouth of the river, the water level remained "at maximum".

Saldo accused the Ukrainian army of bombing the area, "which makes it difficult for rescuers to do their job," and the Kremlin of killing civilian flood victims with repeated artillery fire, including a pregnant woman. Russia, for its part, bombed the city of Kherson and the part of the region under Ukrainian control.

Russians and Ukrainians continue to accuse each other of destroying the Kashovka Dam on Tuesday, whose reservoir is emptying, flooding the region downstream. No independent source has so far been able to say what caused the dam to burst, which is in the Russian occupied zone.