Hundreds of people have been evacuated from settlements along the southern stretch of Ukraine’s Dnipro River after water burst through the breached Nova Kakhovka dam, submerging streets and town squares.
The collapse of the structure at the southern tip of the vast Kakhovka Reservoir on Tuesday unleashed a torrent of water, adding to the misery of thousands of people who have been caught on the front lines of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Kyiv accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and hydroelectric power station in an area of southern Ukraine that Moscow has controlled for more than a year while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian bombardment. It was not possible to verify the claims.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the dam breach is the “biggest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades”.
Footage posted on social media shows severe flooding in the Russian-controlled town of Nova Kakhovka, which is next to the dam.
Credit: aljazeera.com
