Russia-Ukraine war continues: evacuations are underway near Kherson after Russian dam destruction causes flooding.
Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam near Kherson.
Russian Ukraine War: 885 people evacuated from Kherson Oblast due to Kakhovka dam destruction.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reported that 885 residents of Kherson Oblast had been evacuated as of 11:00 a.m. local time following Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant’s dam.
The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River, and has ordered people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding.
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As aerial footage circulated on social media showing most of the dam wall washed away and a massive surge of water heading downstream, the army’s Southern Operational Command posted a Facebook post accusing “Russian occupation troops” of blowing up the hydroelectric dam.
Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Kherson region, said approximately 16,000 people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the river. He stated that people were being evacuated from districts upstream of Kherson city and would be transported by bus to the city, then by train to Mykolaiv, and then to other Ukrainian cities.
The disaster occurred on the second day of Ukrainian offensive operations, which is likely to be the start of a mass counteroffensive. It could jeopardise any Ukrainian plans for an amphibious assault across the river.
Local Russian authorities in the town of Nova Kakhovka initially denied that anything had happened to the dam, then blamed the collapse on Ukrainian shelling. According to Interfax, an unnamed official with the Kherson emergency services said the dam collapsed due to structural weakness under water pressure.
In the aftermath of the disaster, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called an emergency meeting of his national security council on Tuesday.
Russian Ukraine War
The islands along the river’s course downstream of Nova Kakhovka, as well as much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson, are the most vulnerable to flooding. Earlier modelling of such a disaster suggested that Kherson city would escape unscathed, but the harbour, docklands, and an island to the south of the city are likely to be inundated. It is unknown how many people will lose their homes.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant upstream may lose access to water for cooling as the reservoir drains, and Crimea’s water supply may be severely impacted.
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