Death toll from flooding due to explosion at Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam rises to 10

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - The death toll from the flooding caused by the explosion at the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has risen to 10.

In a statement on Telegram, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said eight people have died, while 42 people, including seven children, have been missing in Kherson Oblast, where 46 settlements remain flooded.

The statement further said that two people were killed in the neighboring Mykolaiv region, where it said 31 settlements were flooded.

It also said that 2,743 people were evacuated from the Kherson region, including 205 children and 76 people with reduced mobility. Meanwhile, 982 people were evacuated, including 167 children, from the Mykolaiv region, it added.

The statement said that there is no water supply for almost 165,000 people in 32 settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

“We are recording a steady decrease in the water level in flooded settlements. We are strengthening security measures to prevent injury to people and cases of theft,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said, the statement concluded.

Klymenko said on Sunday that at least six people were killed and 35 were missing in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

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 annexed by Russia in 2014.