Kyiv predicts 42,000 at risk from dam flooding
About 42,000 people are at risk from flooding on both sides of the Dnipro River after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian officials have said, with floodwaters expected to peak on Wednesday.
The prediction came after UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the security council on Tuesday night that the dam breach “will have grave and far-reaching consequences for thousands of people in southern Ukraine on both sides of the front line through the loss of homes, food, safe water and livelihoods”.
“The sheer magnitude of the catastrophe will only become fully realised in the coming days,” he said.
Key events
Tass is carrying some quotes from Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-imposed leader of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region. It reports:
Between 22,000 and 40,000 people were in the disaster zone in the Kherson region due to the emergency at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station (KHPP). The level of the Kakhovka reservoir in the Enerhodar region dropped by more than 3.5m, Saldo said.
He also noted that from a military point of view, the operational-tactical situation after the destruction of the KHPP by the armed forces of Ukraine developed in favour of the Russian forces.
Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed the other for the destruction of the dam, which was in Russian-held territory. Ukraine’s hydroelectric energy company have stated that it was blown up from inside.
Tass reports that the occupying Russian authorities in the portion of Kherson that they control have declared “an ‘emergency situation’ mode of operation”.
The Russian Federation claimed to annex Kherson late last year, despite only controlling the territory to the south of the Dnipro, on its left-bank. Ukraine forced Russian troops back over the river and liberated the right-bank city of Kherson in November.
Ed Ram is in Kherson, and here are some more of his pictures, showing people wading through the flood water.
Our photo desk has also put together this gallery of some of the most striking images to emerge since the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Two towns in Russia’s western Kursk region lost electricity and a man was wounded on Wednesday after Ukraine dropped explosives on an electricity substation near the border overnight, the region’s governor said.
“One of the workers received shrapnel wounds while restoring power supply. He is in the central district hospital and doctors are giving him all necessary treatment,” Reuters reports governor Roman Starovoyt said.
The claims have not been independently verified.
That is it from me for today. My colleague Martin Belam will take you through the rest of the day’s news.
The governor of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, says that 1,582 houses have been flooded on the right bank of the Dnipro River and some 1,457 people have been evacuated overnight, Reuters reports.
At least seven missing, says Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka
At least seven people are missing after waters from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam flooded nearby areas, Russia’s TASS news agency cited the Moscow-installed mayor of the city of Nova Kakhovka as saying on Wednesday.
“Of seven people we know for sure (are missing),” TASS cited Nova Kakhvovka mayor Vladimir Leontiev as saying. More than 900 people were evacuated on Tuesday from the Russian-controlled city of some 45,000 people, which sits on the left bank of the Dnipro River.
Ukrainian officials said that some 80 communities in the overall Kherson region are at risk of being flooded, Reuters reports.
Relief workers on the Ukraine-controlled right bank of the river have reported having to work under fire. “The biggest difficulty right now is not the water. It’s the Russians on the other side of the river who are shelling us now with artillery,” said Andrew Negrych, who was coordinating relief efforts for a US charity, Global Empowerment Mission, on Tuesday.
In Kherson on Tuesday evening, Reuters reporters heard four incoming artillery blasts near a residential neighbourhood where civilians were evacuating.
At least seven people are missing after dam blast, Tass, Russia’s state news agency cited the Moscow-installed mayor of the city of Nova Kakhovka as saying on Wednesday.
No flood-related deaths have been reported, but US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the flooding had probably caused “many deaths”.
Kyiv predicts 42,000 at risk from dam flooding
About 42,000 people are at risk from flooding on both sides of the Dnipro River after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian officials have said, with floodwaters expected to peak on Wednesday.
The prediction came after UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the security council on Tuesday night that the dam breach “will have grave and far-reaching consequences for thousands of people in southern Ukraine on both sides of the front line through the loss of homes, food, safe water and livelihoods”.
“The sheer magnitude of the catastrophe will only become fully realised in the coming days,” he said.
Russian forces shell Kherson, killing one
Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian region of Kherson multiple times over the past day, the region’s governor said, with one person dying and one injured as a result of the attacks.
The shelling included the city of Kherson, the Ukrainian governor of the region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Neither the Guardian nor Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no further detail from Prokudin.
On Tuesday, the critical Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled part of Kherson was destroyed, flooding large swaths of Kherson and forcing the evacuation of thousands.
Here is the video of Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of terrorism at the UN on Tuesday:
Water levels in the city of Nova Kakhovka have begun to decline after the destruction of the nearby dam, the Russian-installed administration of the city said on the Telegram messaging app.
“The water level on the previously flooded streets of Nova Kakhovka began to subside,” the administration of the now Moscow-controlled city in occupied Ukraine said.
Images released from the city have shown flooding submerging entire streets under water. The devastation to the region is likely to be severe and ongoing, even if it is confirmed that flood waters have begun to recede more than 24 hours after the dam collapsed.
Satellite images from Ukraine, provided by the Maxar Technologies company, have revealed the extent of the flooding in the country’s south.
The images show houses and buildings submerged in water, with many having only their roofs showing, and water taking over parks, land and infrastructure.
Maxar said that their images covered more than 2,500 square km between Nova Kakhovka and the Dniprovska Gulf southwest of Kherson city on the Black Sea, giving some idea of the scale of the crisis.
As Reuters reports, US President Joe Biden told G7 leaders last month that Washington supported joint allied training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s.
But US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan has said there was no final decision on Washington sending aircraft.
Zelenskiy has long appealed for the F-16 jets, saying their appearance with Ukrainian pilots would be a sure signal from the world that Russia’s invasion would end in defeat.
Russia said on Tuesday that US-built F-16 fighter jets can “accommodate” nuclear weapons and warned that supplying Kyiv with them will escalate the conflict further.