At least 16 people are dead and 31 are missing in flooding from the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse, Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Saturday, CNN reported. The dam in southern Ukraine, collapsed on June 6, destroying villages, flooding farmland and cutting power and clean water supplies to tens of thousands of people. It is unclear if the dam was deliberately targeted or whether structural failure was behind its collapse.
Russia blew up the dam "in panic"
According to Kyiv, Russia blew up the dam "in panic" ahead of a planned Ukraine counter-offensive, while Russia accuses Ukraine of launching "mass artillery attacks" on the structure to deprive Crimea of water and provide a distraction from the battlefield. Ukraine's interior ministry on Saturday said 3,614 people had been evacuated from the flooded areas "including 474 children and 80 people with reduced mobility." It added that 1,300 houses remained flooded in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
In a Telegram post the same day, Andrey Alekseenko, the Russian-backed head of the government of the Kherson region, gave a higher death toll, CNN reported. "Unfortunately, the death toll has risen to 29 people. Twelve people in Oleshky, 13 people in Hola Prystan and 4 people in Nova Kakhovka. We will provide the necessary assistance to each family who has lost relatives," Alekseenko wrote.
Area witnessing heavy fighting
The area surrounding the dam has been one of the most heavily contested regions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The city of Kherson, which sits on the west bank of the Dnipro River, was liberated by the Ukrainian military in November after eight months of Russian occupation, as per CNN.
But much of the east bank of the river south of the Nova Kakhovka dam remains under Russian control. The reservoir supplies water to large swaths of southern Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
