A Ukrainian dam has been destroyed in a major blow to the counter-offensive.
The vast Soviet-era dam in the Russian controlled part of southern Ukraine was blown on Tuesday, unleashing a flood of water across the war zone, according to both Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Flooding could prevent further Ukrainian advances in the south and threaten the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Both sides blamed the other for destroying the dam.
Videos on social media showed a series of intense explosions around the Kakhovka dam.
Other clips showed water surging through the remains of the dam with bystanders expressing their shock, sometimes in strong language.
Follow all the latest below
07:33 AM
‘Multi-hundred foot chunk of the Nova Kakhovka dam is gone’
The dam, 30 metres tall and 3.2 km long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river.
It holds water equal to that in the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah and also supplies water to Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.
“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the Ukrainian military said
07:23 AM
Situation at nuclear plant ‘under control’ after dam blast
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam by Russian forces in southern Ukraine poses a threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, but the situation at the facility is under control, Ukraine’s state atomic power agency has said.
“Water from the Kakhovka Reservoir is necessary for the station to receive power for turbine capacitors and safety systems of the ZNPP,” Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. “Right now the station’s cooling pond is full: as of 8:00 a.m., the water level is 16.6 meters, which is sufficient for the station’s needs.”
“Currently, the situation at the ZNPP is under control, Ukrainian personnel are monitoring all indicators,” it said.
07:20 AM
Zelensky blames Russia for the damage
06:42 AM
Ukrainians told to evacuate
People living near the dam have been told to leave.
Authorities in Kherson are predicting that water levels will reach “critical” point in the next five hours.
Thousands of Ukrainian residents had already been encountering flooding risk as water levels rise in Dnipro river, and Russian forces flooded and mined fields in recent weeks ahead of Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
06:15 AM
Dam blast would be blow to counter-offensive
President Zelensky has previously suggested that Russia would not hesitate to cause an environmental disaster for the sake of gaining a military advantage.
As Ukraine plans its counter-offensive, any flooding if Kherson could complicate plans for attacks in the contested southern region.
The Kakhovka dam has long been considered a possible military target.
Consider the damage that 18 million cubic metres of water could create while engulfing nearby villages and any of the remaining 284,000 people who lived nearby before the invasion.
Destroying the infrastructure could cut the whole of southern Ukraine of its water supply. That includes the water usually supplied to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant.
05:56 AM
Zelensky to hold emergency talks
We’re now hearing that Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, is calling security advisors together for an emergency meeting.
Ukrainians are waking to the news that a major dam has been damaged overnight. Their government is yet to confirm the extent of the destruction.
05:27 AM
Nova Kakhovka Dam ‘attacked’
The large Nova Kakhovka Dam in the Russia-controlled parts of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine was destroyed and the territory is flooding, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed source close to the matter.
TASS cited the source as saying that it was a quiet night and that there were no air strikes on the dam overnight.
Kyiv and Moscow are each…
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