Five dead in flooding from breached Ukrainian dam

At least five people have died in the Russian-controlled city of Nova Kakhovka in Ukraine after a breached dam resulted in massive flooding, the city’s Kremlin-appointed mayor said on Thursday, according to The Associated Press. 

The first reported deaths come as more than 6,000 people have been evacuated between the Russian and Ukrainian sides since the Nova Kakhovka dam collapsed Tuesday. 

Oleksandr Prokudin, the regional governor of Kherson, said in a Telegram post that the average flooding level on Thursday was 5.6 meters, or 18.4 feet, and about 600 square kilometers, or 232 square miles, of the region was underwater.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have blamed their opponents for the destruction of the dam, which supplies water to the Crimean peninsula and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian forces on Wednesday of having “abandoned” people in occupied areas.

“The situation in the occupied part of Kherson region is absolutely catastrophic,” Zelensky tweeted. “The occupiers simply abandoned people in these terrible conditions. Without rescue, without water, just on the rooftops in flooded communities. And this is another deliberate crime of Russia: after the terrorist state has caused a disaster, it also maximizes the damage from it.”