Hundreds of people were evacuated from settlements along Ukraine’s southern Dnieper on Tuesday after water from the Russian-bombed Novaya Kakhovka dam flooded the city’s streets and squares, Reuters reported.

The collapse of the Kakhovskaya dam caused a torrential flow, which made life even more difficult for thousands of people who were on the front lines of the Ukrainian-Russian war.

PHOTO Handout / AFP / Profimedia

Looking downstream, Russia controls the left bank of the Dnieper and the dam itself, while Ukraine owns the right bank. Each side blamed the other for the disaster that triggered the latest crisis in the conflict.

Images posted on social media, not all of which have been independently verified by Reuters, show severe flooding in the Russian-controlled town of Nova Kakhovka, which is next to the dam.

Oleg Tuchinsky / AFP / Profimedia

More than 80 settlements were in the flood zone, about 16,000 residents need to be evacuated, reports “Ukrainian Pravda”.

The lawful mayor of Novaya Kakhovka, Volodymyr Kovalenko, reported this morning that the flooding of the city began immediately after the dam was destroyed.

At the same time, the mayor of Novaya Kakhovka, Volodymyr Leontiev, who was imprisoned by the Russian occupiers, initially told Russian propagandists that the news about the hydroelectric power plant being blown up was “nonsense”, saying that “everything is quiet and peaceful in the city.” “Later he had to admit that the city was flooded.

PHOTO Yevgenia Maloletka / AP / Profimedia

The Russian administration of the Kherson region announced that the evacuation of three districts is being prepared – Novaya Kakhovka, Holopristan and Oleshkiv.

The water level there has already risen by more than a meter, residents say, and is expected to rise further.

“The flow of water from the Dnipro and its tributary is very strong,” says Oleksandr Syomyk from Kherson, standing near the bursting river.

PHOTO by Nina Lyashonok / AP / Profimedia

“The water level has risen by a meter. We will see what happens next, but we hope that it will be better.”

The Ukrainian police released a video in which a policeman carries an elderly woman to safety, while residents wade through knee-deep water in the Kherson region.

Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, a senior official of the Kherson Military Administration of Ukraine, warns that the situation may worsen.

“Tomorrow there will be a peak (of flooding), then there will be a decline,” he said during an online media briefing.

PHOTO Yevgenia Maloletka / AP / Profimedia

“We have already evacuated about 1,000 people. We have about 50 buses running between Kherson and the affected villages. We have prepared four evacuation sites in Kherson.”

The dam supplies water to a strip of agricultural land in southern Ukraine and the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, and also cools the Russian-owned Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The collapse of the dam creates a new humanitarian disaster just as Ukraine launches a long-awaited counteroffensive to drive Russian troops from its territory.

Computer simulations show how the failure of a dam in the upper reaches of the Dnipro River creates the risk of massive flooding along its banks to its mouth in the Black Sea.

They were carried out last year in the context of the fact that last November Russia and Ukraine began to accuse each other of plans to destroy a dam built on the Dnieper, the fourth largest in Europe.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy then stated that the dam holds about 18 million cubic meters of water, and if it is blown up, it will quickly flood 80 settlements, including Kherson.

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What does Shoigu say about the destruction of the dam in Nova Kakhovka

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday accused Ukraine of undermining the huge Kakhovka Dam as part of a plan to transfer units from neighboring Kherson Oblast to conduct operations against Russian forces, Reuters reported.

A Russian Defense Ministry statement, signed by Shoigu, said that the destruction of the dam and the resulting flooding were aimed at preventing a Russian attack in the Kherson area, allowing Ukraine to “transfer parts and equipment from the Kherson front to the area of ​​hostilities. “.

Shoigu did not provide evidence to support his statement. Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia blew up the dam early Tuesday.

Ukraine is investigating the dam explosion as a war crime and possible “ecocide,” the country’s attorney general’s office said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Ukraine says Russia blew up dam ‘in moment of panic’

Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian forces blew up the Kakhovskaya Dam in a Russian-controlled area of ​​southern Ukraine “at a moment of panic.”

“The occupiers in a panic blew up the Kakhovskaya Dam – this is an obvious act of terrorism and a war crime that will be evidence in an international court,” says the message published on the Telegram channel of the Military Intelligence of Ukraine.

Ukraine is one of the few states, including Russia, that have criminalized “ecocide” in domestic legislation.

Kyiv defines ecocide as “mass destruction of flora and fauna, poisoning of atmospheric air or water resources, as well as any other actions that may cause environmental disaster” in Article 441 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.