At least seven people are missing after water from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam flooded nearby areas, the Russian news agency TASS said on Wednesday, citing the Moscow-based mayor of the city of Nova Kakhovka. In addition, 42,000 people living in areas near the Dnipro river are in danger, according to Kyiv, and a state of emergency has been declared.
The Moscow-controlled Nova Kajvovka Dam on the Dnipro River was destroyed on Tuesday, flooding a strip of the war front in the Kherson region, forcing villagers to flee. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the dam collapse.
Some 42,000 people were at risk from flooding in Russian-Ukrainian-controlled areas along the river, Ukrainian officials said, while the United Nations has warned of “serious and far-reaching consequences.”
“We know for sure that seven people (are missing),” Nova Kakhvovka Mayor Vladimir Leontiev was quoted as saying by TASS. More than 900 people were evacuated during the day on Tuesday from the Russian-controlled city, inhabited by some 45,000 people and located on the left bank of the Dnipro river. In total, some 1,300 people have been evacuated in the Moscow-controlled region.
The authorities imposed by Russia in the region have declared a state of emergency in the territories under their control due to the serious consequences of the destruction of the dam. “In the Kherson region, the operating regime of the state of emergency has been introduced,” an emergency source told the TASS agency. The day before, the authorities declared a state of emergency only in the New Kakhovka area, where the destroyed hydroelectric plant was located.
Meanwhile, according to the Russian-imposed mayor of New Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, water levels are beginning to drop slightly in the city after registering up to 12 meters on Tuesday in some places. According to the emergency response center, the level has dropped by 35 centimeters.
In the territories occupied by Russian troops, the town of Korsunka was completely submerged due to the uncontrolled discharge of water from the Kakhovka reservoir.
According to the president of the Government of the Kherson Administration imposed by Russia, Andrei Alekseenko, after also being completely flooded the day before Oleshki, now the situation is critical in the town of Hola Prostan.
Ukrainian officials said some 80 communities in the general Kherson region are at risk of being flooded. The governor of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Wednesday that 1,582 houses were flooded on the right bank of the Dnipro river and some 1,457 people were evacuated overnight.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the destruction of the dam as a “bomb of massive environmental destruction”, and confirmed that Kiyv has already denounced Russia for it before international justice.
“The deliberate destruction of the dam and other infrastructure of the (New Kakhovka) hydroelectric power station at the hands of the Russian occupiers is an environmental bomb of mass destruction,” Zelensky said in his address to the nation last night.
In his daily address to his citizens, the Ukrainian head of state also reported that “the (Ukrainian) attorney general has already asked the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court to involve international justice in the investigation of the explosion in The prey”.
Regarding the consequences of the disaster, Zelenski highlighted the problems of drinking water supply that the overflow could cause for several regions of the south and southeast of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president assured that authorities are “doing everything possible†to supply drinking water to provinces such as Krivói Rog, Dnipropetrovsk, Jerson, Mykolaiv and Zaporiyia.
