June 6, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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Nova Kakhovka, a major dam and hydroelectric power plant in the Russian-occupied southern Kherson region, suffered a collapse early Tuesday.

The breach is what a United Nations aid chief said is possibly the “most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The incident has prompted mass evacuations, flooding and fears for large-scale devastation. According to the Nova Kakhovka zoo, 300 animals died Tuesday in the collapse’s aftermath.

Ukrainian troops witnessed Russian soldiers being swept up in flood waters and fleeing the east bank of the Dnipro River after the collapse, an officer in Ukraine’s armed forces said. Many Russian troops were killed or wounded in the chaos, according to the officer. 

Here’s what you should know to get up to speed:

Pointing fingers. Both Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of being behind the major breach of the dam, although it is not clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the collapse as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction” while the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was caused by an “act of sabotage” by Ukraine. Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood added his voice too, accusing Russia’s war in Ukraine of being responsible for the catastrophic damage following the breach.

Dam collapse aftermath. In a frontline city like Kherson — where the shelling is constant — the rising water brings an added danger. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said it is working closely with humanitarian partners to assist those impacted by flooding from the collapsed dam. Several Ukrainian regions that get some of their water supply from the reservoir of the Nova Kakhovka dam are making efforts to conserve water. British intelligence agencies are investigating the collapse, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak said Tuesday, according to UK’s PA Media. And according to Ukraine’s state nuclear regulatory inspectorate, problems due to the collapse can be avoided at the Zaporizhzhia power plant if “necessary measures are taken.”

Funding aid to Ukraine. Michael McCaul, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said he believes Congress will pass more funding for Ukraine, despite Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s warning that more funding for the war must fall under the budget caps in the new debt ceiling law. Also, Ukraine is waiting for final agreements with its allies on the delivery of F-16 jets, Zelensky told journalists on Tuesday.

Nord Stream pipelines developments. The US received intelligence from a European ally last year that the Ukrainian military was planning an attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines three months before they were hit, three US officials told CNN. The attack on the pipelines last September has been condemned by US officials and Western allies alike as a sabotage on critical infrastructure. It is currently being investigated by other European nations.

In a frontline city like Kherson — where the shelling is constant — the rising water brings an added danger.

“This is both a water element and a mine hazard, because mines float here and this area is constantly under fire,” the head of Kherson region military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin told CNN. “We will work around the clock, rescuers will not rest. We’ll change shifts and will pull people out if necessary.”

Prokudin, who has been overseeing rescue efforts in towns and cities downstream from Nova Kakhovka, said the operation has become more difficult with time as flood waters continue to rise.

“If in the morning we could do it with cars, then with trucks, now we see that big cars can no longer pass,” he explained. “The water has risen so much that we are now using boats. About eight boats of various types are currently working to evacuate people from the area.”

Artillery salvos could be heard intermittently, but search and rescue operations carried on, with soldiers and first responders unfazed by the constant thuds.

The large presence of soldiers and first responders contrasts with the very few Kherson residents out on the streets. Many fled when Russia first invaded and officials say most still haven’t returned to the city that is controlled by Ukraine. Those who remain in the city know to take shelter in the afternoon when Russian artillery fire often picks up.

“It is always very dangerous here. This checkpoint is usually under shelling,” Produkin said. “You see a crowd of people and I think the hit will happen soon.”

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British intelligence agencies are investigating the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak said Tuesday, according to UK’s PA Media. 

“Our military and intelligence agencies are currently looking at it, so it’s too soon to pre-empt that and make a definitive judgment,” Sunak told reporters as he traveled to Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden, according to PA Media. 
“But what I can say is if it is intentional, it would represent, I think, the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, and just would demonstrate the new lows that we would have seen from Russian aggression,” he continued. “Attacks on civilian infrastructure are appalling and wrong. We’ve seen previous instances of that in this conflict so far, but it’s too early to say definitively.”

When asked if he will discuss the issue with Biden during their meeting on Thursday, Sunak said: “Of course, I’ll be discussing Ukraine with President Biden, generally, but the immediate response is humanitarian.”

“We had already put resources and funding in place to support both the UN and the Red Cross to respond to situations like this,” Sunak added. “And they are now being able to divert those resources to particularly help the humanitarian response and the evacuation in this area as a result of what’s happened.”

The US received intelligence from a European ally last year that the Ukrainian military was planning an attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines three months before they were hit, three US officials told CNN.

The attack on the pipelines last September has been condemned by US officials and Western allies alike as a sabotage on critical infrastructure. It is currently being investigated by other European nations.

The intelligence assessment was first disclosed by The Washington Post, which obtained the document from a trove of classified documents allegedly leaked on the social media platform Discord by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.

CNN has not seen the document, but the three officials confirmed the US was told about the Ukrainian plans.

According to the Post, the intelligence cited a source in Ukraine, which said Western allies “had a basis to suspect Kyiv in the sabotage” for almost a year. The intelligence said that those who may have been responsible were reporting directly to Ukraine’s commander in chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, “who was put in charge so that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, wouldn’t know about the operation,” the Post reported.

But, the intelligence also said that Ukraine’s military operation was “put on hold.”

CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian government for comment.

White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby declined to address the reporting directly on Tuesday.

“I think you know there are three countries conducting an investigation of the Nord Stream sabotage — and we called it sabotage at the moment — Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. Those investigations are ongoing and again the last thing that we’re going to want to do from this podium is get ahead of those investigations,” Kirby said.

The news comes less than a year after leaks caused by underwater explosions were discovered in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which funnel gas from Russia into the European Union and run under the Baltic Sea. The pipelines were controversial before the war in Ukraine began, stoking concerns about European dependence on Russian gas.

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Flooding from the collapsed Ukrainian dam has killed 300 animals at the Nova Kakhovka zoo, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry tweeted Tuesday.

“This is ecocide,” the ministry said. “The Russians want to destroy anything that is alive.”

Several Ukrainian regions that get some of their water supply from the reservoir of the Nova Kakhovka dam, which collapsed overnight, are making efforts to conserve water.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the local authorities have asked people in the Nikopol and Kryvyi Rih districts – parts of which are supplied by the reservoir – to “stock technical water and drinking water.” Serhii Lysak, the Ukrainian regional governor clarified on Telegram that “both of them have water available as of now.”

About 70% of the city of Kryvyi Rih was supplied by the reservoir, Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city military administration, said on his Telegram channel, adding that the situation there is difficult but controlled.

Vilkul listed a number of measures to conserve water, including reducing water pressure overnight, asking businesses to limit consumption and banning the use of hoses.

“We realized the risks of not having Kakhovka water a year ago and have already implemented a large list of technical measures to ensure the city’s life in these conditions, which now gives us a head start,” he said. 

In the Nikopol district, all water utilities are operating normally, according to the local authority.

Officials are asking people not to use their stockpiled water “as long as there is water in the tap and in the store. This is your stockpile for the period when the water is gone and the water delivery will just start. Of course, if such a period comes.” 

In the Ukrainian-held part of the Zaporizhzhia region, only one settlement may face challenges with its water supply, said Yurii Malashko, the head of the Ukrainian regional military administration. That would only occur if the water levels dropped below 14 meters, in which case Malashko said there would be water tankers to supply drinking water.

Michael McCaul, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said he believes Congress will pass more funding for Ukraine, despite Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s warning that more funding for the war must fall under the budget caps in the new debt ceiling law. 

Senate Republican critics of the law say Pentagon funding levels are insufficient and are calling on Congress to a pass a new separate spending package — known on Capitol Hill as a supplemental — to provide aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia. 

But McCarthy has thrown cold water on calls for a supplemental, and McCaul seemed to side with the speaker. 

“If your first process is ‘I need a supplemental,’ you’re not paying attention, not you, but the Senators are not paying attention to how the system works,” McCaul said. “We will go through the appropriations process and we will do the numbers that we just agreed to. The idea that they think they are going to go around it is not going to work.” 

McCaul also called on the US President Joe Biden’s administration to provide more to Ukraine from funds Congress already appropriated.

“I just got out of a briefing with some of the Ukraine forces and, you know, they’re prepared to mount this counteroffensive, and my criticism of the administration is they haven’t given them everything they need,” he said. “They won’t get in the long range artillery to hit Crimea. So now Britain has done that, the Brits and the French. They need the cluster munitions and we won’t give them. Finally the F-16s under threat, under pressure from the G7, but they don’t have the pilots, it’ll take three to six months for that.”

The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam is possibly the “most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

The dam is a lifeline in the region as a critical water source for millions of people in Kherson as well as Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, he said, and a key source of agricultural irrigation in southern Kherson and the Crimean peninsula – impacting farming and food production.

Griffiths added that a severe impact is expected in Russian-occupied areas where humanitarian agencies are still struggling to gain access.

The UN aid chief, speaking to the Security Council on Tuesday, also highlighted the danger fast-moving water poses to the risks of mine and explosive ordinance contamination, displacing the projectiles to areas previously assessed as safe.

Griffiths pointed out the impact the dam’s collapse will have on electricity generation and the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

“The damage caused by the dam’s destruction means that life will become intolerably harder for those already suffering from the conflict,” Griffiths said, “The consequences of not being able to deliver assistance to the millions of people affected by the flooding in these areas are potentially catastrophic.”

Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood accused Russia’s war in Ukraine of being responsible for the catastrophic damage following the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Wood, who is an alternate representative for special political affairs to the United Nations, stressed that although the US is “not certain” who is to blame for the collapse, that it was “yet another casualty in Russia’s brutal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” 

“I want to make absolutely clear,” Wood told a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine Tuesday. “It was Russia that started this war. It was Russia that occupied this area of Ukraine. And it was Russian forces that took over the dam illegally last year and have been occupying ever since.” 

It is unclear what caused the dam to collapse in the late evening of Monday or early hours of Tuesday. Both Ukrainian and Russian officials said the dam collapsed in an explosion and are blaming each other for it.

Both Ukraine and Russia are blaming each other for the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam Tuesday as residents in the area rush to evacuate.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the collapse as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction” while the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was caused by an “act of sabotage” by Ukraine.

“For the sake of their own security, the world should now show that Russia will not get away with such terror,” Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation Tuesday. He called on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to “involve international justice” and investigate what caused the collapse.

Only the “complete liberation of Ukrainian land from Russian occupiers… will guarantee that such acts of terrorism will not happen again,” he said.

It is not clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure. 

“This act of sabotage by the Kiev regime has caused devastating damage to the farmland in the region and the ecosystem at the mouth of the Dnieper river. The inevitable drop in the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir will affect Crimea’s water supply and will hinder the improvement of agricultural land in the Kherson region,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine is waiting for final agreements with its allies on the delivery of F-16 jets, President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists on Tuesday.

“Our partners know how many aircraft we need. I have already received an understanding of the number from some of our European partners, and it is powerful. I am very happy with the information I received from some countries … It was a serious, powerful offer,” Zelensky said.

A news release on the Ukrainian presidency’s website about the conversation said Zelensky had met the leaders of countries ready to provide Ukraine with F-16s on a recent trip to Moldova.

“Now we [Ukraine] still need a joint agreement with the United States,” the release said. 

The Biden administration gave its backing for Kyiv’s pilots to be trained on US-made F-16s at the G7 summit in Japan on May 19 and has signaled to allies — some of whom have a supply of the jets — it won’t block their export to Ukraine. 

Training on the F-16s has started in several EU countries, the bloc’s High Representative, Josep Borrell, told reporters last month. 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said it is working closely with humanitarian partners to assist those impacted by flooding from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam.

“Evacuations are underway via buses, trains, and private vehicles,” USAID spokesperson Jessica Jennings said Tuesday. “USAID was able to activate pre-positioned resources to provide buses in the immediate hours following the breach.”

She added that the agency has bought fuel vouchers for evacuation volunteers, that partners are assessing secondary disaster risks and that they have “been prepared throughout this crisis for potential displacements.”

“As a result, our partners are already mobilizing pre-positioned supplies for distribution at evacuation points, including hygiene kits, non-food items, hot meals, and safe drinking water, and multi-purpose cash assistance for other basic necessities,” Jennings said.
“USAID is also supporting the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) and other emergency response actors with purchasing and delivering water purification equipment, water pumps for water removal, hygiene kits, food kits and household items, rescue equipment, boat motors and engine parts, and boat rental services,” she added.

Jennings said that the “immediate priority needs include food and safe drinking water at evacuee reception points in Kherson city, as well as safe accommodations for those remaining in Kherson city.”

Ukrainian troops witnessed Russian soldiers being swept up in flood waters and fleeing the east bank of the Dnipro River after the collapse of the Nova Khakovka dam, an officer in Ukraine’s armed forces said. Many Russian troops were killed or wounded in the chaos, according to the officer. 

Capt. Andrei Pidlisnyi said when the dam collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning “no one on the Russian side was able to get away. All the regiments the Russians had on that side were flooded.” 

Pidlisnyi told CNN he believed the Russians had deliberately attacked the dam to disrupt Ukrainian forces’ plans for an upcoming offensive. 

“Around 3 a.m., the enemy blew up the Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant in order to raise the water level to flood the approaches and the left bank of the Dnipro River, as well as the settlements located there. And to make it impossible for the Ukrainian armed forces to advance in the future,” he claimed.

Pidlisnyi explained that the lie of the land around the river meant that Russia’s military — located on the east bank — suffered serious impacts in the dam’s breach. His unit was able to watch the events unfold through the use of drones and troops on the scene.

“The left [east] bank is lower than the right bank, so it is more flooded. The enemy’s positions right on the riverbank were also flooded. You need to understand that the enemy’s positions are not only trenches but also ordinary civilian houses where they lived,” Pidlisnyi said.

The Russian units in harm’s way may not have been warned, possibly to maintain the element of surprise, Pidlisnyi said.

Pointing blame: Ukraine’s government has echoed Pidlisnyi’s contention that Russia deliberately blew up the dam, while the Kremlin has said it was Kyiv’s forces that carried out an attack. 

In fact, evidence to conclusively support either side’s claim is yet to emerge, while analysis of videos of the dam, and its subsequent breach, and in particular examination of satellite imagery, suggest the collapse could have been the result of structural failure since the Russians occupied the dam in March last year.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again blamed Moscow for the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and said Russia should bear “criminal liability” for “ecocide.”

“In our opinion, this is a crime, the Prosecutor General’s Office has already registered it. It will have evidence. There is a modern classification — ecocide,” Zelensky said in an interview with national media on Tuesday.

Adding, “I think that there should be criminal liability… International institutions, including the International Criminal Court, should react.”

Both Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of being behind the major breach of the dam, although it is not clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure. 

Zelensky referred to a report by Ukrainian intelligence last year that claimed occupying Russian troops had mined the dam. 

Between 35 and 80 settlements were expected to be flooded due to the breach, he said, and his government was working to provide residents in flooded areas, and those neighboring it, with drinking water. 

In a tweet later on Tuesday, Zelensky said he had spoken to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, and that they had “discussed ways to minimize risks to #ZNPP [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant] security,” which Grossi is due to visit next week. 

The ZNPP uses water from the dam at Nova Kakhovka to cool its nuclear reactors.

Residents downstream from the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were told to “do everything you can to save your life,” according to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson region military administration, as video showed a deluge of water gushing from a huge breach in the dam.

The critical dam is the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume. It’s the last of the cascade of six Soviet-era dams on the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine. There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

Here are some images showing the dam’s damage and flooding in the area:

CNN’s Cody McCloy contributed to this post.

Problems due to the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam can be avoided at the Zaporizhzhia power plant if “necessary measures are taken,” Ukraine’s state nuclear regulatory inspectorate said.

The plant uses water from the dam, which collapsed Tuesday prompting evacuations in the area, to cool its nuclear reactors. It is the largest nuclear power station in Europe.

Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom had considered the “possible impact of a decrease in the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir” prior to the dam’s collapse and had ”developed measures for such a case,” the inspectorate’s statement read. 

If these measures are implemented and all of the power plant units are shut down, the decrease in the water level “should not affect the nuclear radiation safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” it said. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Tuesday that the plant’s reactors had been shut down “for many months,” according to a statement. The ZNPP has been occupied by Russian troops since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. 

The collapse of a major dam and hydro-electric power plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine sparked mass evacuations and fears for large-scale devastation as Kyiv accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”

In recent days, Ukraine’s forces have increasingly taken the fight to Russia’s entrenched front lines in the south and east ahead of a widely expected summer counter-offensive.

Mykhailo Podolyak, who is a senior aide to Zelensky, said the dam’s collapse would “create obstacles for the offensive actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

Here are the latest headlines related to the dam’s breach and other news from the war:

CNN’s Jonny Hallam, Josh Pennington, Helen Regan, Olga Voitovych, Irene Nasser, Sebastian Shukla, Ivana Kottasová, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Jo Shelley contributed reporting to this post.

The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka Dam could flood “at least 37 villages and settlements” according to estimates from Ihor Syrota, the CEO of Ukrhydroenergo, which oversees all the hydropower plants in Ukraine — including the plant at Kakhovka before the Russians occupied it last year.

People who live on the Russian-occupied east bank of the Dnipro River face the “biggest threat” because they are located on lower ground, he said. 

Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said he believes there could be up to 80 settlements affected in both Ukrainian-held and Russian-occupied territory.

“The west bank is higher, so there will be less flooding there,” Syrota said. 

However, even in Kherson city, on the west bank, “the water level will rise more than three meters,” Syrota said. 

Syrota said he thought water levels would peak on Wednesday morning at around 5 a.m. local time. 

“The water level will not fall after its peak. The water will continue to flow for two more days, and only on the fourth [day] may it start to fall,” he said. “I think that within eight to 10 days all this water will go down to the Black Sea. That is, eight to 10 days or so for the water to completely run off.” 

Syrota outlined some of the dangers of the dam breach. 

“The environmental consequences will, of course, be significant. First of all, the Kakhovka reservoir is likely to be drained to zero, and we understand that the number of fish will gradually go down,” he said.

Syrota repeated the Ukrainian government’s version of events, which is that the Russian troops occupying the plant had “blown up the plant.” 

He said this “will have damaged the equipment at the plant,” causing oil to spill into the water. 

Both sides accused each other of being behind the major breach of the dam, although it is not clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure. 

“Four hundred tons of turbine oil is always there, in the units and in the block transformers that are usually installed on this equipment,” and some of the oil spilled out, he claimed. “It all depends on the level of destruction of the units and this equipment… If the damage is extensive, then all the oil will leak out.” 

Syrota said that the Kakhovka reservoir could not be blocked until the east bank was freed from Russian occupation, “because it needs to be blocked from the east bank to the west bank.” 

CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen reported from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, where several areas of the city have flooded following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam. 

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from Kherson and other Ukrainian-held parts of the region following the collapse, according to local officials.

“(In) the very short time that we’ve been on the ground here, we could see this water already rise considerably,” Pleitgen reported.

Watch CNN’s reporting:

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The European Union is mobilizing support to help Ukraine following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday, describing the collapse as it as “outrageous attack” from Russia.

“Russia will have to pay for the war crimes committed in Ukraine. The destruction of the dam, an outrageous attack on civilian infrastructure, puts at risk thousands of people in the Kherson region,” von der Leyen tweeted Tuesday. 

It is unclear what caused the dam to collapse, which came as Ukraine geared up for a widely anticipated counter-offensive. Both Ukrainian and Russian officials said the dam collapsed in an explosion and are blaming each other for it.

Russia has “strongly” rejected all responsibility for the incident with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying Moscow “unequivocally” believes it to be “deliberate sabotage” by Ukraine. 

The EU is mobilizing support through its civil protection mechanism, von der Leyen said, adding that the bloc is working hard to ensure the rapid delivery of dirt water pumps, fire hoses, boats and mobile water purification stations. 

The leaders of member states, including those from Germany and Ireland, came out condemning the incident.

The bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell didn’t hold back either, saying in a statement that the “attacks” represent a “new dimension of Russian atrocities.”   

The White House is closely monitoring the impacts of the collapse of a major critical dam on the Dnipro River in Ukraine.

White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said the United States is looking into reports of what could have possibly caused the collapse, but made clear that “we cannot say conclusively what happened at this point.”

“We’ve seen the reports that Russia was responsible for the explosion at the dam, which I would remind Russian forces took over illegally last year and have been occupying since then,” Kirby said, adding that the US is working with Ukrainians to gather more information.

Kirby wouldn’t say if the US has concluded that Russia is likely behind the collapse, or if it was even an intentional act.

Some context: The critical Nova Kakhovka dam is the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume and is the last of the cascade of six Soviet-era dams on the Dnipro River — a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine. There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow invaded its neighbor. 

The dam’s collapse, which powers Ukraine’s Kakhovka hydro-electric power plant, could “very well have a devastating impact on Ukraine’s energy security, and it will certainly have an impact on Ukraine’s canal system,” Kirby said, prompting the US to reach out to Ukraine to provide humanitarian assistance. 

Still, Kirby declined to say what, if any, effect the United States thinks the dam collapse will have on Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive.

US and western officials see signs that Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia is beginning and have noted a “substantial increase in fighting” in the east of the country over the last 48 hours as Ukrainian troops probe for weaknesses in Russian defensive lines, a senior NATO official said on Tuesday.

While preliminary attacks, also known as “shaping” operations, have been underway for at least two weeks, Ukrainian forces have in the last several days begun testing Russian positions with artillery strikes and ground attacks to find vulnerable areas they can break through, the NATO official and a senior European military intelligence official told CNN.

The collapse of a sprawling dam in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson region, which triggered a wave of evacuations on Tuesday as floods of water spilled from the Nova Kakhovka hydro-electric plant, could complicate some of Ukraine’s plans, officials told CNN.

The dam’s breach could now make it more difficult for Ukrainian troops to cross the Dnipro River and attack Russian positions there, said two western officials. And the dam’s collapse has already created a significant humanitarian challenge into which the Ukrainian government will need to address and funnel resources.

“Anything that may have been planned downstream from the dam probably has to be replanned,” a European ambassador in Washington said. “Ultimately, the water levels will recede, but most likely, the catastrophic flooding has impacted the bridges and roads in the area, so they may not be usable in the way as planned before.”

The US and the Western intelligence community are still examining who is responsible for the dam’s destruction, but officials are leaning toward Russia as the culprit, the official said.

More background: Over the last several days, analysts have seen some notable Ukrainian operations and probes in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, between the southern city of Kherson and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the NATO official said. Ukrainian forces are also conducting operations south of Donetsk city in eastern Ukraine, which appears to be a new effort, the western official said.

The counteroffensive is expected to be carried out on multiple fronts, a senior US military official said. The official added that “there are many moving parts to synchronize” before a major ground operation can be launched. The weather has also played a role and delayed Ukraine’s initial attacks on Russian defensive lines.

Read more here.

Thousands gathered by the beaches of Normandy in France on Tuesday to remember those who died fighting for freedom in World War II, ceremonies that had renewed meaning as speakers, including US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, pointed to parallels with Ukraine’s war against Russia.

Seventy-nine years ago, D-Day kicked off the liberation of Europe, spearheaded by Allied sea and airborne landings in Normandy, France.

The first step toward victory – and peace – in Europe, it came at great cost to American and Allied soldiers, some 10,000 of whom would lie dead, be wounded or reported missing on French soil on that first, fateful day.

The parallels with the war in Ukraine have appeared again and again in speeches and comments about the D-Day commemorations. Many have pointed to the same struggle for freedom against occupation that drove both the liberation of Europe and Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Austin, at the American War Cemetery off Omaha Beach, spoke of the war in Ukraine and the same desire – as was the case 79 years ago in Normandy – to seek a world “where those who speak tyranny and genocide will be cast out.”

“If the troops of the world’s democracies could risk their lives for freedom then, surely the citizens of the world’s democracies can risk our comfort for freedom now,” he said.

Read more here.

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and other Ukrainian-held parts of the wider region following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a local official said Tuesday on the Telegram messaging app.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukrainian governor of the Kherson region, said that 1,364 people had been evacuated from flooded areas, including 1,221 people from the Ostriv district of the regional capital, as of Tuesday evening local time. 

The official also said that more than 1,000 houses in the Ukrainian-held parts of Kherson region “appear to be underwater.”

Prokudin said he understood the settlements of Korsunka and Dnipriany on the east bank of the Dnipro river – occupied by Russia – were “fully flooded” and others —Krynky, Kozachi Laheri, Pishchanivka, Oleshky, Kardashynka, Hola Prystan and Stara Zburiivka – were “partially flooded”.

In an earlier Telegram post, Prokudin said that dozens of houses in the region had been flooded. 

“The water continues to come and flood the settlements of Kherson region. As of now, 71 houses are known to be flooded,” he said. “In the village of Tiahynka alone, 2 bridges and 33 houses are flooded. In Burhunka, 3 houses are under water. In Odradokamyanka, a bridge is flooded, making it difficult to get to the settlement. In the village of Kozatske, 30 houses are flooded.” 

More background: The critical Nova Kakhovka dam is the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume. It’s the last of the cascade of six Soviet-era dams on the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine. There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

It is unclear what caused the dam to collapse, which came as Ukraine geared up for a widely anticipated counter-offensive. Both Ukrainian and Russian officials said the dam collapsed in an explosion and are blaming each other for it.

Finland expelled nine Russian Embassy employees on Tuesday after identifying them as “intelligence officers.”

The Finnish foreign ministry said in a tweet that it had “summoned the Chargé d’affaires of Russia who was notified of the expulsion.”

“Moscow will give an appropriate response to Finland’s decision to expel nine employees of the Russian embassy from Helsinki,” Russian state news outlet TASS reported later Tuesday, citing the Russian foreign ministry. 

The town of Oleshky in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region is “almost totally flooded” following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Kremlin-backed official said on Telegram on Tuesday.

“The most difficult situation is now in Alyoshki [the Russian name for Oleshky]. The town is almost totally flooded,” Andrey Alekseenko, the Russian-backed head of the government of the Kherson region, said.

Alekseenko said that “special vehicles” were needed to evacuate people from Oleshky, and some of those were “being brought from Crimea.”

“Problems with communication also complicate the situation here,” he added.

Alekseenko – who posted a video of a coach driving down a flooded highway – said that more than 100 buses were being driven to “coastal areas” across the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region to help people flee the flooding. “Five thousand places for evacuees are being prepared in safe settlements,” he said.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday that it’s clear that the collapse of the dam in the southern Kherson region is “another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

He added that the UN doesn’t have access to information to independently verify the cause.

“We have all seen the tragic images coming out today of the monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe in the Kherson region of Ukraine,” Guterres told reporters.

“Today’s tragedy is yet another example of the horrific price of war on people. The floodgates of suffering have been overflowing for more than a year,” he added. “That must stop. Attacks against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure must stop.”

Guterres said that in response, the United Nations and humanitarian partners are “rushing support in coordination with the Government of Ukraine – including drinking water and water purification tablets and other critical assistance.”   

The United Nations Security Council will meet at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday afternoon to discuss the dam collapse, a US official told CNN.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Ukraine is trying to evacuate residents of the Kherson region “as quickly as possible” after a major dam in southern Ukraine collapsed, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told CNN on Tuesday. 

Svyrydenko told CNN that 80 settlements are currently in a flood zone.

Ukraine has accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.” The Kremlin denied involvement and accused Ukraine of “deliberate sabotage” of the Nova Kakhovka dam, which supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine, including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the Crimean peninsula.

“We are absolutely sure that it is not structural damage, we are absolutely sure that it was done by the Russian side. And it’s a big man-made disaster,” Svyrydenko said, adding, “It was used as an ecological weapon.”

The Pope’s envoy met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv to discuss a peace plan. Here are some other headlines from the region as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. 

Vatican envoy: The special Vatican envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, met with Zelensky and other government officials in Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s proposed peace plan, Zelensky said on Telegram Tuesday, calling on the Vatican to “contribute to the implementation of the Ukrainian peace plan.”

“Only united efforts, diplomatic isolation and pressure on Russia can influence the aggressor and bring a just peace to the Ukrainian land,” the president added.

Serbia not opposed to indirect ammunition supply to Ukraine: Despite the country’s neutral status, Serbian President Aleksander Vucic says he is not opposed to the country’s ammunition indirectly ending up in Ukrainian hands, despite his country’s commitment to remaining neutral in the war in Ukraine. This comes after a report claimed that the leaked Pentagon documents show Serbia had sent or was planning to send lethal aid to Ukraine, which the defense minister had denied.

“I’m not a fool. I am aware that some of the arms might end up in Ukraine,” Vucic said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Is it possible that it’s happening? I have no doubts that it might happen […] What is the alternative for us? Not to produce it? Not to sell it?”

US House speaker receives pushback on Ukraine aid comments: A handful of defense hawks pushed back against US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s assertion yesterday that a Ukraine supplemental package had no chance in the House. Taking such a stand puts him at odds with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Longtime appropriator Rep. Tom Cole also said that the aid should be provided if needed, arguing that those who don’t want to help Ukraine and view it as going above the top-line defense number agreed to in the debt ceiling are “wrong.”

The critical Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was damaged just days before suffering a major structural collapse in the late evening of Monday or early hours of Tuesday, a CNN analysis reveals. 

CNN cannot independently verify whether the damage to the road bridge played a part in the dam’s collapse, or whether it was destroyed in a deliberate attack by one of the warring parties.

Satellite imagery from Maxar shows the road bridge that ran across the dam was intact on May 28, but imagery from June 5 shows a section of the same bridge missing. Analysis of lower resolution satellite imagery suggests the loss of the bridge section took place between June 1 and 2. 

Some background: Meanwhile, data shows water levels in the reservoir behind the dam were at record highs last month, according to the Hydroweb information service. Levels had plummeted earlier in the year, the same data shows, prompting Ukrainian officials in February to warn of possible shortages in drinking water supplies, and water for agricultural use. 

Around 600 people who live in flooded parts of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson have been evacuated to the city center, according to Roman Mrochko, the Ukrainian head of the Kherson city military administration. 

In a video posted to his Telegram channel, Mrochko filmed himself standing in a flooded area that he identified as the city’s Korabel district, where he said the water level “has risen 2.5 meters (about 8 feet).”

“The city’s military administration has provided over 30 buses, which evacuated the citizens of flooded districts to the city center – around 600 citizens,” Mrochko said. “People with limited mobility were evacuated as well. They were taken to hospitals and humanitarian headquarters. Some of the citizens expressed a desire to evacuate to other cities of Ukraine free of charge.” 

“I would like to urge all the residents who have not yet evacuated to do so, because, according to preliminary estimates, the water level will continue rising until 5 a.m. (local) tomorrow,” he added. 

Mrochko said “approximately 29 streets and lanes” had been flooded.

He said the neighborhoods experiencing rising floodwaters include: Naftogavan, Hydropark, Ostrivske highway, Mykhailivska street, Koshevyi descent, Prychalna, Flotski Lane, Nasypnyi Lane.

He added that authorities had cut off energy and gas supplies to the Ostriv district “to prevent any accidents.” 

Remember: Russian troops captured the city of Kherson at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, but withdrew from the city to the east bank of the Dnipro River in October 2022 when Ukrainian forces mounted a counteroffensive. Russia has still controlled half of the entire Kherson region.

Kyiv and Moscow exchanged accusations over the collapse of a sprawling dam in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson region, triggering a wave of evacuations as floods of water spilled from the Nova Kakhovka hydro-electric plant.

Here are the latest developments:

The Russian Investigative Committee has initiated a criminal case probe into the collapse of the dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, leading to flooding in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

The committee opened the case under the charge of a terrorist act committed by a group of individuals, causing significant property damage and other severe consequences, follows from the official statement on Telegram. 

The flooding of settlements in the Kherson region was caused by the destruction of the power station by the armed forces of Ukraine, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.

What Ukraine is saying: Meanwhile, multiple senior Ukrainian officials and military figures accused the Kremlin of sabotaging the dam Tuesday, saying Russian forces blew up the dam “in panic.”

The Russia-installed Nova Kakhovka administration said Tuesday it was preparing a “planned evacuation” of citizens due to rising water levels caused by damage to the Kakhovka dam, urging residents to gather essentials.

A major dam and hydro-electric power plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine collapsed early Tuesday, prompting mass evacuations and fears for large-scale devastation as Ukraine accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”

The critical Nova Kakhovka dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine and there are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

A critical piece of infrastructure, the dam holds back around 18 cubic kilometers in the Kakhovka Reservoir, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters news agency.

The 30-meter-high, 3.2-kilometer (2 miles)-long structure is one of six dams along the Dnipro and supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

It also supplies water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command said the dam’s collapse will “certainly” affect the operation of the nuclear power plant but there was “no need to escalate the situation now and draw the most critical conclusions.”

And the International Atomic Energy agency said “no immediate nuclear safety risk” exists at the Zaporizhzhia plant and their experts are “closely monitoring the situation.”

Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said that while water from the reservoir is needed for the “replenishment for turbine condensers and safety systems” of the plant, the cooling pond is “full” and as of 8 a.m. local time “the water level is 16.6 meters, which is sufficient for the plant’s needs.”

In November, the Nova Kakhovka dam was damaged in shelling and satellite images from Maxar Technologies obtained by CNN showed water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam.

Here’s where the dam is located:

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said there have been “no civilian casualties due to high water” after the collapse of a major dam in Russian-occupied Kherson region early Tuesday.

The prime minister reiterated that there are provisions for drinking water and the situation around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is “under control”.

The Nova Kakhovka dam supplies water to the nuclear plant, which lies upstream along the Dnipro River. It’s destruction has renewed concerns for nuclear power plant safety.

At the other side of the dam, people have been evacuated from at risk areas amid fears that rising water levels could threaten the lives of Ukrainians.

A total of 885 people have been evacuated across Kherson region, according to an update earlier Tuesday from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry on Telegram.

“About 80 settlements” are in the flood zone along the Dnipro River, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Telegram following an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defence Council.

Zelensky went on to say evacuations have been ordered with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, in an interview with Russian state TV Russia 24, said that evacuations of homes located along the Dnipro River in Nova Kakhovka are also underway.

Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for the incident. Ukrainian military have accused Russian forces of destroying the Nova Kakhovka dam. The Kremlin have denied involvement and accused Ukraine of “deliberate sabotage” of the dam.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry is calling for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council after what it deemed was a Russian attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam, also pleading Tuesday for sanctions against Moscow’s missile and nuclear industry. 

“We call on the international community to resolutely condemn the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka HPP (Hydroelectric Power Plant),” according to a statement from Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanding a UNSC session and a meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

“We also appeal to the countries of the Group of Seven and the EU to urgently consider the imposition of new far-reaching sanctions on the Russian Federation, in particular related to the Russian missile industry and the nuclear sector,” it said.  

The statement doubles down on the accusation that Russia was behind the attack, without providing any evidence.

“We consider the Russian Federation’s detonation of the dam of the KHPP as a terrorist act against Ukrainian critical infrastructure, which aims to cause as many civilian casualties and destruction as possible,” according to the ministry.

Moscow accuses Ukraine of being behind the incident. 

It is still not clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure. Analysis of videos of the dam and its breach, as well as of recent satellite imagery, do not yet provide conclusive evidence one way or the other.

A Russian-appointed mayor said the city of Nova Kakhovka in occupied southern Ukraine was submerged in water after a dam burst overnight, triggering a wave of evacuations amid fears of widespread devastation.

“The city is flooded,” Vladimir Leontyev said on Russian state TV Rossiya-1. 

The city administration said on Telegram that a local emergency regime had been introduced in the Nova Kakhovka urban district.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s interior ministry announced mass evacuations in liberated areas on the west bank of the Dnipro River near the dam, adding they “are worried” about people in the Russian-occupied east bank.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces said they are “equipped with all the necessary watercraft” for “crossing water obstacles” after the collapse of a major dam and hydro-electric power plant caused flooding in parts of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

In a statement, the military reiterated that it believes Russian forces were responsible for the damage to the Nova Kakhovka dam which spans the Dnipro River.

Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for the incident early Tuesday, which sparked evacuations from nearby areas as dramatic scenes emerged of water gushing from a huge rupture in the dam.

The Kremlin said it “strongly rejects” accusations that Russia is responsible for damaging a sprawling dam and hydro-electric power plant in southern occupied Ukraine, as Kyiv and Moscow traded accusations over the destruction of the dam.

On a regular call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he “unequivocally” believes the incident was “deliberate sabotage” by Ukraine, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin was being kept informed about the situation.

Peskov claimed the attack was “planned and carried out by order received from Kyiv, from the Kyiv regime. The Kyiv regime must bear full responsibility for all the consequences.”  

He claimed Ukraine wanted to “deprive Crimea of water” and to distract from the battlefield.

Peskov said: “Having launched large-scale offensive operations two days ago, now the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not achieving their goals. These offensive actions are choking.”

Some context: Multiple senior Ukrainian officials and military figures accused the Kremlin of sabotaging the dam on Tuesday, saying Russian forces destroyed the dam “in panic.”

This incident occurred a day after Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said a Ukrainian offensive is “taking place in several directions,” heightening speculation that a major push by Kyiv to recapture land held by Russia’s occupying forces could be getting underway.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the collapse of a crucial dam and hydro-electric power plant in the Russian-occupied Kherson region demonstrates “the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

“The destruction of the Kakhovka dam today puts thousands of civilians at risk and causes severe environmental damage,” Stoltenberg tweeted on Tuesday.

“This is an outrageous act, which demonstrates once again the brutality of #Russia’s war in #Ukraine.”

Stoltenberg is in the Slovakian capital Bratislava for a meeting of the “Bucharest Nine,” the group of Eastern flank NATO allies – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Western allies of Ukraine, including the transatlantic military alliance, have remained key supporters of Kyiv during the conflict by donating military aid or imposing sanctions against Russia.

CNN’s Olga Voitovych and Sophie Jeong contributed reporting.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said the collapse of a major dam and hydro-electric power plant in Russian-occupied Kherson has caused “no threats” to the country’s electricity supply amid fears of large-scale devastation.

The overnight incident at the Nova Kakhovka dam in the southern region has not directly affected nationwide power systems but regional power supplies are at risk due to flooding, the ministry said in a statement. 

It said: “There are no threats to the stability of electricity supply. The generated electricity is sufficient to cover the needs of consumers.” 

Nearly 12,000 people in the Kherson region have lost power due to flooding “and there may be problems with water supply,” the statement added. “Preventive anti-crisis measures are being prepared.” 

Further east, the ministry said “there is no direct threat” to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant despite the “gradual decrease in the water level” at spent fuel cooling ponds. The plant in the southeastern region lies upstream from the destroyed dam and is also under Russian control.

Water levels in areas close to the Dnipro River have reached 12 meters (39 feet) following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydro-electric power plant early Tuesday.

The Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, said the settlements of Tsyurupinsk and Golaya Pier “are being flooded,” according to a Telegram post from the local press service.

“In these settlements there is no electricity and water — the inhabitants are left by themselves,” he said.

The critical Nova Kakhovka dam spans the Dnipro River and supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

It also supplies water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.

Multiple senior Ukrainian officials and military figures have accused Russia of sabotaging the dam but Russian authorities deny the allegation.

Separately, in an interview with Russian state TV Russia 24, Leontyev said evacuations of homes located along the Dnipro River in Nova Kakhovka are underway.

“Now we are evacuating citizens who are directly on the shore. The city continues to be subjected to rocket attacks right now. I think that residents of about 300 houses will be evacuated and are already being evacuated… in order to avoid casualties,” Leontyev said.

A Russian-appointed governor in Kherson said a “large-scale evacuation” of residents will not be necessary after floods of water rolled from a dam and hydro-electric power plant that collapsed in the southern region of Ukraine.

“This will not greatly affect the situation in the Kherson region. Even a large-scale evacuation of people will not be required. Most residents remain in their places, although transport has been sent for them,” Vladimir Saldo said on Telegram. 

According to Saldo, the destruction of the dam led to “a large, but not critical” amount of water flowing down the Dnipro River, which caused the washout of agricultural fields along the coast and disruption of civilian infrastructure. 

Kyiv and Moscow have exchanged blame over the collapse of the dam, which Ukrainian military intelligence claimed Moscow blew up “in panic” over Ukraine’s expected summer offensive.

Some background: The dam spans the Dnipro River — a huge waterway running through southeastern Ukraine and there are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

Saldo, the Russian-appointed governor, said the incident “will not prevent our military from defending the left bank.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said evacuations have been ordered with immediate effect after a sprawling dam and hydro-electric power plant in the Russian-occupied Kherson region collapsed early Tuesday.

There are “about 80 settlements in the flood zone,” Zelensky posted on Telegram following an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defence Council.

He went on to lay out the timeline of events before stressing that all towns and villages in the region must be supplied with water.

Zelensky said the explosion occurred at 2:50 a.m. local time (7:50 p.m. ET) when “Russian terrorists carried out an internal explosion of the structures of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.”

Russian authorities have denied their involvement in the breach of the Nova Kakhova dam.

A total of 885 people have been evacuated from the region so far amid fears of widespread devastation.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said earlier that Ukrainian authorities were helping people in the liberated west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson, adding they “are worried” about people in the occupied east bank.

Flooding from the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam will not affect residents of Crimea, according to the Moscow-backed head of the peninsula’s administration. 

The dam supplied water for much of the peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. 

Russia-installed official Sergey Aksenov said a canal that connects the reservoir to Crimea will “become shallow,” but currently there are 40 million cubic meters of reserves in the waterway.

Aksenov said efforts are being made to minimize the disruption to Crimea’s water supply and “there is more than enough drinking water” currently.

Some context: Crimea has had a history of water supply issues since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, after Ukraine cut the water supply. Russian forces captured the North Crimea Canal and began restoring the water supply to the peninsula in the days immediately following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

A senior Ukrainian military official said settlements on the banks of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region are starting to experience flooding following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam early Tuesday.

As water in the Kakhovka reservoir continues to rapidly gush out, Ukrainian officials have warned the levels will be “critically high” in a matter of hours. The reservoir typically holds around 18 cubic kilometers of water, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters.

Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, said in a statement on Telegram Tuesday that around 16,000 people on the west bank of the river are in a “critical zone.”

As of 7:30 am local time (12:30 a.m. ET), the following settlements are fully or partially flooded, according to Prokudin:

About 80 settlements, most of which are occupied by Russian forces, are in the zone of potential flooding, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said earlier.

“We understand that other settlements will be flooded, and we are ready for this,” Prokudin added.

Evacuations: More than 700 Kherson residents have already been evacuated, according to Ukrainian officials. Prokudin said they would first be taken to Kherson city, “then to Mykolaiv and from there to Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv and other cities.”

A total of 742 residents have been evacuated in the Kherson region after a major dam and hydro-electric power plant was destroyed there early Tuesday, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The ministry said Ukrainian authorities were helping people in the liberated west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.

“We are worried about our people who remain in the temporarily occupied east bank of the region,” said Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko.

About 80 settlements, most of which are occupied by Russian forces, are in the zone of potential flooding, according to the ministry.

“Water is coming. The situation is complicated by the fact that some roads are being washed away. This makes it impossible to drive to some settlements. Evacuation teams are looking for other ways,” the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Ukrainian Railways is helping authorities to evacuate residents from Kherson.

A major dam and hydro-electric power plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday, prompting mass evacuations and fears for large-scale devastation as Ukraine accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”

Residents downstream from the Nova Kakhova dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were told to “do everything you can to save your life,” according to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson regional military administration, as video showed a deluge of water gushing from a huge breach in the dam.

Here’s what we know:

Russian forces blew up the Nova Kakhovka dam “in panic,” according to a statement Tuesday from the intelligence department of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.

“The occupiers blew up the Kakhovka Reservoir dam in panic — this is an obvious terrorist attack and war crime that will become evidence in an international tribunal,” the statement on the Defense Intelligence’s Telegram channel said.

The destruction of the dam created a “deadly danger” for Ukrainian citizens in the settlements on both banks of the Dnipro River. It also “affects the ecosystem of the entire Black Sea region” and increases the threat of a “nuclear catastrophe,” Defense Intelligence said.

The president of the European Council appeared to blame Russia for the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, writing on Twitter that “Russia and its proxies” will be held accountable. 

“Shocked by the unprecedented attack of the Nova Kakhovka dam,” said Charles Michel. “The destruction of civilian infrastructure clearly qualifies as a war crime — and we will hold Russia and its proxies accountable.” 

The incident — for which Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other — will be raised at the next EU Council summit in Brussels, where “more assistance to the flooded areas” will be proposed, he said.

“My thoughts with all the families in Ukraine affected by this catastrophe,” he added.

Thousands in danger: Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on Twitter that the destruction of the dam is “putting thousands of civilians at risk,” and is a “heinous war crime.”

Meanwhile, a senior Russian official called the incident “a serious terrorist act,” after initially denying the dam’s collapse.

Water at the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam will “reach a critical level” in five hours (around 7:30 a.m. ET), a senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.

“The water in the reservoir is falling rapidly, about 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) per hour. In five hours the water will reach a critical level,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, told CNN.

Ukraine’s military has blamed Russia for blowing up the dam, while a senior Russia-installed official said its destruction was “a serious terrorist attack.” The dam supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

“Catastrophic” consequences: On Tuesday, Podolyak claimed Russia’s goal was to create obstacles for Ukraine’s offensive actions, and the consequences of the dam’s destruction are “already catastrophic.”

“Russians deliberately hit the residents of the occupied Crimea. They exchanged them for certain opportunities to deter the offensive. The peninsula may be left without water supply for many years,” Podolyak said. 

He also said that thousands or even tens of thousands of residents of the surrounding settlements are subject to urgent evacuation, and hundreds of homes and farms will be flooded. 

He called the incident a “global ecological disaster,” warning that various animals and ecosystems will come under threat in the following hours.

The Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric plant was “totally destroyed as a result of the explosion of the engine room from the inside,” said Ukraine’s main hydropower generating company Ukrhydroenergo on Tuesday.

Ukrhydroenergo said the plant “cannot be restored” and claimed “Russian forces blew up” the dam overnight.

Authorities are racing to evacuate residents from flood zones and gauge the level of damage.

Water levels are rapidly lowering and the reservoir is expected to be drained within the next four days, the company said.

Impact at the nuclear plant: Ukrhydroenergo also said in a statement that “the uncontrolled decline in the reservoir level is an additional threat to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia (nuclear power plant).”

The plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, is held by Russian forces but mostly operated by a Ukrainian workforce.

The statement said the power plant uses water from the reservoir for turbine condensers and safety systems, with the cooling pond “now full.” Ukrainian staff at the power plant “are monitoring all indicators,” it said.

The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam “threatens an environmental disaster” for the south of Ukraine, said the country’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Tuesday.

“The world must respond. Immediately. But not just with words, but with actions,” Shmyhal said. 

Earlier Tuesday morning, another top Ukrainian official called the destruction of the dam “ecocide” that will have consequences on people’s access to drinking water and various ecosystems.

Evacuations: Shmyhal added that residents of the flooded areas are being evacuated, with operations “underway from the Ostriv microdistrict in Kherson city.” Evacuation trains to the southern city Mykolaiv are also being arranged, he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has convened a National Security and Defense Council meeting, Shmyhal said, adding that another meeting on environmental safety and emergency response would be held next.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: Shmyhal also said authorities were “assessing the environmental impact and the threat” to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which lies upstream from the dam.

“Due to the lack of access to it, such an assessment is difficult,” Shmyhal said, adding that Russia “must immediately withdraw from” the plant to “avoid further disaster.” 

Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said the destruction of the dam may have negative consequences on the nuclear power plant but the situation is under control.

Repairing the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam “is not possible now,” Vladimir Leontiev, the Russia-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka said Tuesday, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

Leontiev said earlier Tuesday that strikes overnight destroyed the “gate valves” of the dam.

Drone video shows a deluge of water gushing from a sizeable breach. The dam holds around 18 cubic kilometers of water in the Kakhovka Reservior, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters news agency.

Water levels from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam are expected to reach “critically high” levels by about 11:00 a.m. local time (4:00 a.m. ET), Oleksandr Samoylenko, head of Kherson’s regional council said on national television. 

Kherson city will be particularly impacted, Samoylenko said, noting that some parts in the lowlands of the Dnipro and Inhulets rivers will also be affected. 

Samoylenko added that hospitals are on alert and anyone who needs to be evacuated will be.

Some context: The critical Nova Kakhova dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine. There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that its experts are “closely monitoring the situation” and there is “no immediate nuclear safety risk” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following the destruction of a major nearby dam.

The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region supplied water for much of southeastern Ukraine, including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s nuclear agency said Tuesday that the dam’s destruction may have negative consequences for the nuclear plant, but the situation is under control.

“The water from the Kakhovka reservoir is needed for the plant to receive replenishment for turbine condensers and safety systems of the ZNPP,” Energoatom said in a statement on Telegram. “The cooling pond is now full: as of 8:00 am [local time], the water level is 16.6 meters, which is sufficient for the plant’s needs.”

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military also said Tuesday that the situation at the plant is “under control.”

Ukraine has blamed Russia for blowing up the dam, while a senior Russia-installed official said its destruction was “a serious terrorist attack.”

The area downstream along the banks of the Dnipro River is “under control,” following the the destruction of the Nova Kakhova dam, the Russia-installed head of the Kherson region claimed Tuesday.

“There is no threat to people’s lives,” said Andrey Alekseenko on Telegram, adding that Ministry of Emergency Situation staff are in control of the river’s water levels. 
“If necessary, we are ready to evacuate the residents of embankment villages, buses are prepared,” he said.

The head of Ukraine’s Kherson regional military administration earlier said evacuations from potential flood zones had begun and urged residents to “do everything you can to save your life.”

Ukraine’s military has blamed Russia for blowing up the dam, while a senior Russia-installed official said its destruction was “a serious terrorist attack.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday the destruction of a critical southern dam confirms that Russians “must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”

His remarks come as Kyiv’s forces report successful advances in the east of the country and as Moscow claims it repelled a “large-scale offensive” by Ukrainian troops.

Here are the other top headlines:

The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam will “certainly” affect the operation of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine but the situation is “under control,” a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said Tuesday.

“According to experts, this will certainly affect the operation [of the Zaporizhzhia NPP]. But there is no need to escalate the situation now and draw the most critical conclusions,” Ukraine’s southern command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said on national television.
“The situation is currently under control,” she added.

Earlier Tuesday, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said on Tuesday that the dam’s destruction will “also pose a threat to the [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant].”

The plant, the largest nuclear facility in Europe, has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion last year.

Some context: The Nova Kakhovka dam is a critical piece of infrastructure, holding around 18 cubic kilometers in the Kakhovka Reservoir, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters.

The dam supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

“Crimea is indeed very dependent on water supply,” Humeniuk said Tuesday. “I would like to ask whom they have made worse.”

The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam confirms that Russians “must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land”, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement on his official Telegram Tuesday.

“It’s only Ukraine’s victory that will return security. And this victory will come. The terrorists will not be able to stop Ukraine with water, missiles or anything else,” he added.

Zelensky also confirmed he has convened a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council.

A major dam in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine collapsed early Tuesday, prompting evacuations and fears for large-scale devastation as Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for committing what they both described as a terrorist act.

Residents downstream from the Nova Kakhova dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were told to “do everything you can to save your life,” according to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson regional military administration, as video showed a deluge of water gushing from a huge breach in the dam.

Drone video, posted to social media and geolocated by CNN, showed the destroyed dam wall and fast-moving torrents of water flowing out into the river.

A top Ukrainian official called the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam “ecocide” in a statement Tuesday morning.

“The Russians will be responsible for the possible deprivation of drinking water for people in the south of Kherson region and in Crimea, the possible destruction of some settlements and the biosphere,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said on Telegram. 

Zelensky will hold an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the council’s secretary said Tuesday.

Evacuations from potential flood zones have already begun, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson regional military administration.

Ukraine’s military has blamed Russia for the destruction of the dam, while a senior Russia-installed official said its destruction was “a serious terrorist attack.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will hold an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the council’s secretary, Oleksii Danilov, said Tuesday.

Evacuations from potential flood zones have already begun, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson regional military administration.

Ukraine’s military has blamed Russia for the destruction of the dam, while a senior Russia-installed official said its destruction was “a serious terrorist attack.”

Police and emergency workers are on alert to evacuate civilians from potential flood zones as water gushes out of the destroyed Nova Khakova dam in the southern Kherson region, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement Tuesday.

With the water level rising, the ministry urged everyone in the “danger zone” to turn off all electrical appliances, take documents and essentials, and take care of “loved ones and pets.”

According to the ministry, the “danger zone” includes the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Liovo, Tiahynka, Poniativka, Ivanivka, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Prydniprovske, Sadove, and the Korabel Island district of Kherson city.

“Trust the police, rescuers and our defenders,” the ministry said in its statement. “The enemy is trying to spread disinformation, to absolve themselves of responsibility for another crime.”

Ukraine’s military has blamed Russia for the destruction of the dam, while a senior Russia-installed official said its destruction was “a serious terrorist attack.”

A senior Russia-installed official in occupied southern Ukraine on Tuesday acknowledged that overnight strikes destroyed parts of the Nova Kakhovka dam — reversing his earlier comments that no damage had been caused.

Nova Kakhovka Mayor Vladimir Leontiev said the strike on the dam was “a serious terrorist attack,” Russian state media TASS reported.

“Around 2 a.m. there were a number of repeated strikes on the Kakhovka HPP (hydropower plant), which destroyed the ‘shonors’ [gate valves], as they are called in common parlance. As a result, water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to be spilled downstream uncontrollably,” Leontiev said, according to TASS.

There is no need to evacuate Nova Kakhovka yet, he added, though Ukrainian officials say evacuations around the dam have already begun.

Earlier on Tuesday, Leontiev had denied the dam had collapsed in an interview with Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti, calling it “nonsense.”

Ukraine’s military has accused Russia of blowing up the dam.

A major dam located in a Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine has been blown up by Russian forces, according to Ukraine’s military.

“The Russian Army has committed another act of terror,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson region military administration, in a video on Telegram. “It has blown up Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant. The water will reach critical level in five hours. Evacuation in the area of danger has started.”

“All services are working,” Prokudin added, urging residents along the East Bank of the Dnipro River to “leave dangerous areas immediately.”

Drone video emerged late Monday showing a deluge of water gushing from a sizeable breach in the dam.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South on Tuesday confirmed the dam’s destruction in a post on their official Facebook saying they were assessing the scale of the destruction and calculating likely areas of flooding.

It is impossible to say who is responsible for the damage caused to the dam at this time.

However, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, on Tuesday denied the dam had collapsed in an interview with Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti, calling it “nonsense.”

The torrent of water seen escaping from the dam in the video has the potential to cause major destruction around Kherson city and other populated areas along the Dnipro River, according to analysts who have been fearing this breach could occur in the fighting.

The video posted on social media has been geolocated by CNN. 

Drone video emerged late Monday showing a deluge of water gushing from a sizeable breach in the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South on Tuesday confirmed the dam’s destruction in a post on their official Facebook saying they were assessing the scale of the destruction and calculating likely areas of flooding.

However, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, on Tuesday denied information about the dam collapsing in an interview with Russian state media RIA Novosti, calling it “nonsense.”

The torrent of water seen escaping from the dam in the video has the potential to cause major destruction around Kherson city and other populated areas along the Dnipro River, according to analysts who have been fearing this breach could occur in the fighting.

The flooding could lead to the deaths of thousands of people, according to Russian state media on Tuesday.

The video posted on social media has been geolocated by CNN. 

Both Russia and Ukraine have since October 2022 repeatedly accused each of planning to breach the dam using explosives, according to Reuters.  

It is impossible to say who is responsible for the damage caused to the dam at this time.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Tuesday that Ukrainian forces suffered “heavy losses” during an unsuccessful attempt to advance in the south of the Donetsk region on Monday.

The Russian ministry said earlier that its troops had repelled a “large-scale offensive” by Ukrainian forces in southern Donetsk.

In a statement on Telegram Tuesday, the ministry said Ukrainian forces were “hit with a complex weapons strike by the army forces, assault and operational-tactical aviation, missile forces, and artillery, as well as heavy thermobaric systems.”

The ministry also claimed Russian forces destroyed “28 tanks, including eight main battle Leopard tanks … and 109 armored fighting vehicles.”

Moscow is known to make inflated claims about Ukrainian losses.

CNN could not independently verify the report and has reached out to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry for comment.

Groups of Ukrainian pilots have been selected for training in the United Kingdom where they will learn to fly modern fighter jets, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday.

In a post on Telegram, Shmyhal said he had thanked British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who is visiting Kyiv, for “his leadership in creating the ‘coalition of fighter jets’” that Ukraine is lobbying for — and for, “his commitment to train our pilots,” he said.

His Telegram post had earlier said the pilots were headed to the UK, but it was updated later in the day to say they had been selected for training there.

Push for F-16s: The UK does not have the US-made F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine wants but said after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit last month that it would give “cohorts of Ukrainian pilots… basic training” they could “apply [to] a different kind of aircraft.”

US President Joe Biden gave his backing for Kyiv’s pilots to be trained on US-made F-16s at the G7 summit in Japan on May 19. The training has started in several EU countries, the bloc’s High Representative, Josep Borrell, told reporters last month. 

Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands are among the countries that have said they will participate in the training. The Netherlands said on May 26 that — despite helping to lead the effort — it had not yet decided whether to deliver the jets to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday praised troops fighting around Bakhmut after officials claimed that units had retaken territory on the northern and southern flanks of the embattled eastern city. 

“I am grateful to every warrior, to all our defenders, who provided us today with the news we have all been waiting for in the Bakhmut direction. Well done, warriors,” Zelenksy said in his nightly video address to the nation.

Earlier, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar claimed on Telegram that Ukraine was “carrying out offensive actions” along the eastern front line.

Maliar said Ukrainian forces had advanced some 200 to 1,600 meters around the settlements of Orikhovo-Vasylivka and Paraskoviivka to the north of Bakhmut, and some 100 to 700 meters around Ivanivske and Klishchiivka, southwest of the city. 

One person is dead and several others injured after a Russian rocket attack on a residential area in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Monday, a local official said.

Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the regional military administration, said nine people were hurt in the attack on Balaklia, a town in the Izium district.

The person who died was a 57-year-old man, the regional prosecutor’s office said in a post on its Telegram channel.

A Ukrainian offensive is “taking place in several directions,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television on Monday, heightening speculation that a major push by Kyiv to recapture land held by Russia’s occupying forces could be getting underway.

Recent weeks have seen Ukraine’s military stepping up shaping operations — attacks on Russian targets like fuel depots and weapons dumps far behind front lines — which typically precede a major advance by ground forces. But government officials in Kyiv have been at pains to say the start of any counteroffensive would not be announced.

Both Ukraine and Russia have engaged in intense information campaigns to sway public opinion and mislead their opponents about their battle plans.

Maliar’s comments came after the Russian Defense Ministry claimed its troops resisted a “large-scale” attack from Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region. The Russian military claimed in a statement to have killed 250 Ukrainians and destroyed armored vehicles used in the assault, but provided scant evidence.

Moscow is known to make inflated claims about Ukrainian losses. CNN has been unable to independently verify the claim.

A spokesperson for the Ukraine Armed Forces, Bohdan Senyk, told CNN that Ukraine does “not have information” on a purported “large-scale offensive” in Donetsk.

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