A dam in the Russian controlled part of southern Ukraine has been damaged by an explosion, leading to flooding in the area already hit by months of conflict.
The water level around the Nova Kakhovka dam is already up by five metres, with several downstream islands already entirely flooded, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA.
Ukraine’s state hydroelectric agency said that the plant had been “totally destroyed” after a blast in its engine room and could not be restored.
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RIA also reported, citing the Kherson region’s head, that 22,000 people in 14 settlements had been affected so far.
Both Ukrainian and Russian officials blamed each other for destroying the Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region.
Ukraine’s military said that Russian forces blew up the dam.
“The Kakhovka [dam] was blown up by the Russian occupying forces,” the South command of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Tuesday on its Facebook page.
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“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed “Russian terrorists” in a Telegram post, saying “the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land”.
“Not a single meter should be left to them, because they use every meter for terror. It’s only Ukraine’s victory that will return security. And this victory will come. The terrorists will not be able to stop Ukraine with water, missiles or anything else,” he wrote.
Russian forces blew up the dam “in a panic”, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said.
“The occupiers blew up the dam of the Kakhovka Reservoir in a panic – this is an obvious act of terrorism and a war crime, which will be evidence in an international tribunal,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry called for residents of 10 villages on the Dnipro river’s right bank and parts of the city of Kherson to gather “essential documents and pets, turn off appliances and leave”.
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Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said in a video posted to Telegram that “the Russian army has committed yet another act of terror”, and warned that water will reach “critical levels” within five hours.
Russian state news agency TASS said the dam, controlled by Russian forces, had been destroyed after being struck reportedly by firing from an Olkha multiple missile launcher while a Russian-installed official said it was a “terrorist attack”.
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The dam was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and supplies water to the Crimean peninsula and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.
TASS said that water reserves in Crimean reservoirs remined sufficient.
Ukraine’s state atomic agency said the dam’s destruction posed a threat the nuclear plant but that the situation at the facility was currently under control.
“Water from the Kakhovka Reservoir is necessary for the station to receive power for turbine capacitors and safety systems of the ZNPP,” Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
“Right now the station’s cooling pond is full: as of 8am, the water level is 16.6 meters, which is sufficient for the station’s needs.”
“Currently, the situation at the ZNPP is under control, Ukrainian personnel are monitoring all indicators,” it said.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Twitter it was closely monitoring the situation but that there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk at [the] plant”.