June 6, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said evacuations have been ordered with immediate effect after a sprawling dam and hydro-electric power plant in the Russian-occupied Kherson region collapsed early Tuesday.

There are “about 80 settlements in the flood zone,” Zelensky posted on Telegram following an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defence Council.

He went on to lay out the timeline of events before stressing that all towns and villages in the region must be supplied with water.

Zelensky said the explosion occurred at 2:50 a.m. local time (7:50 p.m. ET) when "Russian terrorists carried out an internal explosion of the structures of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant."

Russian authorities have denied their involvement in the breach of the Nova Kakhova dam.

A total of 885 people have been evacuated from the region so far amid fears of widespread devastation.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said earlier that Ukrainian authorities were helping people in the liberated west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson, adding they "are worried" about people in the occupied east bank.

Flooding from the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam will not affect residents of Crimea, according to the Moscow-backed head of the peninsula's administration. 

The dam supplied water for much of the peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. 

Russia-installed official Sergey Aksenov said a canal that connects the reservoir to Crimea will “become shallow,” but currently there are 40 million cubic meters of reserves in the waterway.

Aksenov said efforts are being made to minimize the disruption to Crimea's water supply and “there is more than enough drinking water” currently.

Some context: Crimea has had a history of water supply issues since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, after Ukraine cut the water supply. Russian forces captured the North Crimea Canal and began restoring the water supply to the peninsula in the days immediately following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

A senior Ukrainian military official said settlements on the banks of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region are starting to experience flooding following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam early Tuesday.

As water in the Kakhovka reservoir continues to rapidly gush out, Ukrainian officials have warned the levels will be "critically high" in a matter of hours. The reservoir typically holds around 18 cubic kilometers of water, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters.

Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, said in a statement on Telegram Tuesday that around 16,000 people on the west bank of the river are in a "critical zone."

As of 7:30 am local time (12:30 a.m. ET), the following settlements are fully or partially flooded, according to Prokudin:

About 80 settlements, most of which are occupied by Russian forces, are in the zone of potential flooding, Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs said earlier.

"We understand that other settlements will be flooded, and we are ready for this,” Prokudin added.

Evacuations: More than 700 Kherson residents have already been evacuated, according to Ukrainian officials. Prokudin said they would first be taken to Kherson city, "then to Mykolaiv and from there to Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv and other cities."

A total of 742 residents have been evacuated in the Kherson region after a major dam and hydro-electric power plant was destroyed there early Tuesday, according to Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The ministry said Ukrainian authorities were helping people in the liberated west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.

About 80 settlements, most of which are occupied by Russian forces, are in the zone of potential flooding, according to the ministry.

Ukrainian Railways is helping authorities to evacuate residents from Kherson.

A major dam and hydro-electric power plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday, prompting mass evacuations and fears for large-scale devastation as Ukraine accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”

Residents downstream from the Nova Kakhova dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were told to “do everything you can to save your life,” according to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson regional military administration, as video showed a deluge of water gushing from a huge breach in the dam.

Here's what we know:

Russian forces blew up the Nova Kakhovka dam “in panic,” according to a statement Tuesday from the intelligence department of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense.

“The occupiers blew up the Kakhovka Reservoir dam in panic — this is an obvious terrorist attack and war crime that will become evidence in an international tribunal,” the statement on the Defense Intelligence's Telegram channel said.

The destruction of the dam created a “deadly danger” for Ukrainian citizens in the settlements on both banks of the Dnipro River. It also "affects the ecosystem of the entire Black Sea region" and increases the threat of a “nuclear catastrophe," Defense Intelligence said.

The president of the European Council appeared to blame Russia for the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, writing on Twitter that “Russia and its proxies” will be held accountable. 

The incident — for which Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other — will be raised at the next EU Council summit in Brussels, where “more assistance to the flooded areas” will be proposed, he said.

“My thoughts with all the families in Ukraine affected by this catastrophe," he added.

Thousands in danger: Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on Twitter that the destruction of the dam is "putting thousands of civilians at risk," and is a "heinous war crime."

Meanwhile, a senior Russian official called the incident “a serious terrorist act," after initially denying the dam's collapse.

Water at the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam will “reach a critical level” in five hours (around 7:30 a.m. ET), a senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.

Ukraine's military has blamed Russia for blowing up the dam, while a senior Russia-installed official said its destruction was "a serious terrorist attack." The dam supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

"Catastrophic" consequences: On Tuesday, Podolyak claimed Russia’s goal was to create obstacles for Ukraine’s offensive actions, and the consequences of the dam's destruction are “already catastrophic.”

He also said that thousands or even tens of thousands of residents of the surrounding settlements are subject to urgent evacuation, and hundreds of homes and farms will be flooded. 

He called the incident a "global ecological disaster,” warning that various animals and ecosystems will come under threat in the following hours.

The Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric plant was "totally destroyed as a result of the explosion of the engine room from the inside," said Ukraine's main hydropower generating company Ukrhydroenergo on Tuesday.

Ukrhydroenergo said the plant "cannot be restored" and claimed "Russian forces blew up" the dam overnight.

Authorities are racing to evacuate residents from flood zones and gauge the level of damage.

Water levels are rapidly lowering and the reservoir is expected to be drained within the next four days, the company said.

Impact at the nuclear plant: Ukrhydroenergo also said in a statement that "the uncontrolled decline in the reservoir level is an additional threat to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia (nuclear power plant)."

The plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, is held by Russian forces but mostly operated by a Ukrainian workforce.

The statement said the power plant uses water from the reservoir for turbine condensers and safety systems, with the cooling pond "now full." Ukrainian staff at the power plant "are monitoring all indicators," it said.