Ukraine says at least 6 killed in floods after Kakhovka dam explosion

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Kyiv on Sunday said that at least six people were killed by flooding following an explosion at the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on Tuesday.

“In Kherson Oblast, 46 settlements were actually flooded … 2,718 people were evacuated, including 190 children. Five people died. 35 people are considered missing, including seven children,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Facebook.

Klymenko further said that 31 settlements were flooded in the Mykolaiv region, where one person was killed and 982 people were evacuated, including 167 children.

“Almost 162,000 subscribers in 34 settlements have no water supply in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Delivery of drinking and technical water is in progress. Together with the local authorities, we are looking for opportunities to return a stable water supply to citizens,” Klymenko said.

He added that water in flooded settlements is gradually receding, but that weather conditions have worsened with rain reported in almost the entirety of the Kherson region.

Separately, Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said in a statement that six people were injured while being evacuated from the left bank of the Kherson region due to an attack by Russian forces.

Russian authorities have not yet responded to the statement.

Earlier this week, an emergency was declared on both sides of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine's Kherson region after it burst – one side is controlled by Russia and the other by Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the blast, which destroyed part of the dam that supplied water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.