Watch: Ros Atkins on… The Ukraine dam breach
The destruction of a major dam in Ukraine will have “grave and far-reaching consequences for thousands of people”, the United Nations has warned.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said the scale of the catastrophe at the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine would only become clear in the coming days.
Thousands have fled flooded homes in the area, an active war zone. There are fears water levels could rise further.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of blowing up the dam on Tuesday.
The claims by the warring sides have not been verified by the BBC.
Addressing the UN Security Council late on Tuesday, Mr Griffiths warned that thousands of people in southern Ukraine were facing “the loss of homes, food, safe water and livelihoods”.
As mass evacuations continue on Wednesday morning in Ukraine’s Kherson region, satellite images have emerged showing widespread devastation there.
One of the photos showed a flooded port and industrial area in the regional capital Kherson, which is under Ukrainian control.
Image source, Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies
A Maxar photo showing a flooded port and industrial area of the city of Kherson
On Wednesday morning, 23 localities remained flooded, Ukrainian TV said in its latest news bulletin.
Meanwhile Kherson’s Russian-installed authorities declared a state of emergency in the parts of the region they control.
Some reports suggest that water levels may be dropping in the town of Nova Kakhovka, closest to the dam, as the vast reservoir behind it quickly empties.
But flood waters may not peak in Kherson for another 20 hours, Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin as saying.
Mr Prokudin added that Russian forces had shelled parts of the region including the city of Kherson several times, and that one person was killed and one injured.
Overall, about 40,000 people needed to be evacuated, Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor-General Viktoriya Lytvynova said earlier: 17,000 in Ukraine-held territory west of the Dnipro River and 25,000 in the Russian-occupied east.
The Russian-appointed mayor of Nova Kakhovka said seven people were missing, although it was thought they had also been evacuated.
Vladimir Leontyev added that the village of Korsunka was now completely under water, with flooding up to roof level in three other villages.
Some local residents have been seen desperately trying to save their belongings in homes with water levels nearing the ceiling.
The Kakhovka dam, downstream from the huge Kakhovka reservoir, provides much needed water to farmers and residents, as well as to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. It is also a vital channel carrying water south to Russian-occupied Crimea.
The peak of a huge water spill downstream from the emptying reservoir was expected on Wednesday morning, warned Ukraine’s state-owned hydropower plants administrator Ukrhydroenergo.
Watch: Floods and evacuations after Ukraine dam breach
It said this would be followed by a period of “stabilisation”, with the water expected to rapidly recede in four to five days.
There are concerns about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – which uses reservoir water for cooling.
The situation there is said to be under control and there is “no immediate nuclear safety risk” for the plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
One local resident Andriy, who lives close to the dam – which was seized by Russian forces shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 – said he believed Russia wanted to “drown” his city.
Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
There are fears that floodwaters will rise further in the coming hours
Image source, Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Some desperate local residents have been trying to save whatever they can
In the city of Kherson, a woman called Lyudmyla – who was loading her belongings including a washing machine onto a trailer that was attached to an old car – said: “We’re afraid of flooding. We’re taking our things a little higher up.”
She called for Russian forces to be “kicked out of here… they’re shooting at us. They’re flooding us or doing something else”.
Ukraine said two law enforcement officers were injured in Russian shelling as they were evacuating local residents on Tuesday.
Heavy flooding was earlier reported by the Kremlin-appointed officials in the nearby small town of Oleshky. Residents there say some homes are almost under water, with elderly people sitting on rooves waiting to be evacuated.
It is not yet clear what caused the breach in the dam, but Ukraine’s military intelligence has accused Russia of deliberately blowing it up to halt a long-expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.
On Tuesday evening, President Zelensky said the dam destruction would not stop Ukraine. “We will still liberate all our land,” he said in a video address.
Meanwhile, Russia claims Ukraine carried out the attack on the dam to detract from what Moscow says are Kyiv’s failures of its counter-offensive and to deprive Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula illegally annexed by Russian in 2014 – of fresh water.
The Geneva Conventions explicitly ban targeting dams in war due to the danger it poses to civilians.
Watch: President Zelensky shared a video of the dam on Telegram
