KHERSON: Ukrainians abandoned their inundated homes as floodwaters crested across a swathe of the south on Wednesday after the destruction of a vast dam on the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces that each blamed on the other.

Police and troops in Kherson were bringing people out from inundated areas in inflatable boats, most clutching only a few documents or pets. Water levels in Kherson have risen by five metres (16 feet), officials said.

Elevated water levels in some parts of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region are forecast to continue for three to ten days, the TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, citing emergency services.

Ukraine said the flood would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, swamp tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land and turn more into deserts.

Putin calls dam breach ‘catastrophe’ in call with Erdogan

The disaster at the Nova Kakhovka dam coincides with a looming long-awaited counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces, seen as the next major phase of the war. Each side accused the other of continuing to shell across the floodzone and warned of drifting landmines unearthed by the flooding.

As finger-pointing persisted over the dam’s destruction, Moscow accused Kyiv of blowing up a section of the Togliatti-Odesa pipeline that Russia used before the war to export ammonia, and whose re-activation it has requested as part of talks for a deal on Ukraine grain exports. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of firing at the pipeline.

Proposes probe

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed setting up an international commission to investigate the damage as he spoke with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky said on Twitter that he had sent Erdogan “a list of Ukraine’s urgent needs to eliminate the disaster”, while Putin said the breach was “a barbaric act which has led to a large-scale environmental and humanitarian catastrophe”, according to the Kremlin.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, Britain cannot yet say Russia is responsible for the destruction of the dam, during a visit to the United States.

Asked whether Russia was responsible, Sunak told ITV: “I can’t say that definitively yet. You know, our security and military services are working through it.” “But if true, if it does prove to be intentional, it will represent a new low. It’s an appalling act of barbarism on Russia’s part,” he added.

Ukraine’s prime minister urged the United Nations, the International Red Cross and other bodies to act immediately to help flooded residents of southern Ukraine receiving no help in areas controlled by Russian occupying forces.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2023