Thousands have become homeless following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, which flooded a significant number of villages and parts of a nearby city. Russia and Ukraine traded blames, with the latter being accused, due to the presence of a nearby pipeline it used to export Ammonia before the war.
Thousands were fleeing their homes Wednesday after the destruction of a frontline Russian-held dam in Ukraine flooded dozens of villages and parts of a nearby city, sparking fears of a humanitarian disaster.
Despite the evacuations, officials said Russian forces have kept shelling the residential neighborhoods.
Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for the dam being ripped open early Tuesday, prompting Turkey’s president to propose to both nations’ leaders an international probe of the breach.
The destruction has also raised fears of an environmental disaster and nuclear safety risks as it provides cooling water for Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
The water was waist-deep in central streets of Kherson and ground floors of buildings were submerged.
While finger-pointing continued over the dam’s destruction, Moscow accused Kyiv of blowing up a key pipeline that Russia used before the war to export ammonia and whose re-activation it has requested as part of grain deal talks.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said 1,700 people had been evacuated so far and reported that ongoing shelling was endangering rescuers and locals.
Moscow-installed officials on the Russian-occupied side of the river said on Tuesday that more than 1,200 people had been evacuated.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said 1,852 houses had been flooded by early Wednesday.
Zelensky accused Russia of detonating an “environmental bomb of mass destruction”, saying authorities expected up to 80 settlements with tens of thousands of residents to be flooded and urging the world to “react”.
Last October, Zelensky accused Russia of planting mines at the dam, warning that its destruction would spur a new wave of refugees into Europe.
Russia has said the dam was partially destroyed by “multiple strikes” from Ukrainian forces and urged the world to condemn Kyiv’s “criminal acts”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said he proposed setting up an international commission to investigate the destruction of the dam in calls with Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The Soviet-era dam, built in the 1950s, sits on the Dnipro River, which provides cooling water for the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant some 150 kilometers (90 miles) away.
The UN nuclear watchdog agency said the dam break was posing “no short-term risk” to the plant.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
