In southern Ukraine, a huge dam on the Dnipro River that divides Russian and Ukrainian troops collapsed under the weight of a torrent of water on Tuesday, flooding the conflict area and driving residents from their homes.
Ukraine and its Western supporters accused Russia of intentionally blowing up the dam. The Kremlin said that Ukraine had destroyed the dam to draw attention away from a counteroffensive that Moscow alleges is struggling. According to some Russian-installed authorities, the dam spontaneously exploded.
Neither side immediately provided public proof of the guilty party. Due to the threat that the damage of such "works and installations containing dangerous forces" poses to civilians, the Geneva Conventions clearly forbid targeting dams in times of war.
A pier on a Dnipro tributary had already been flooded by the surge as of mid-morning in Kherson, which was located on the Ukrainian side of the river.
While she was waiting for a train to transport the citizens of Kherson, Lidia Zubova, 67, spoke to Reuters “I was evacuated from the flooded village of Antonivka. Our local school and stadium downtown were flooded... The road was completely flooded, and our bus got stuck,"
As the waves surged, Ukrainian police broadcast footage of policemen rescuing dogs and bringing an old woman to safety.
According to Russia's TASS news agency, the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka underneath the dam stated that the water level had now climbed to a nominal 11 meters on the Russian-controlled bank.
In the middle of the conflict zone, the dam's demolition causes a new humanitarian and environmental calamity and shifts the battleground just as Ukraine prepares a long-awaited counteroffensive to expel Russian forces.
"Russian terrorists. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
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