Southern Ukraine grapples with increasing flooding after dam collapse

KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — People in southern Ukraine braced Wednesday for a second day of mounting flooding, as authorities warned that a dam collapse on the Dnieper River continued to release water that had accumulated in the massive reservoir.

Authorities estimated the floodwaters would continue to rise after Tuesday’s dramatic collapse at the Kakhova dam, some 70 kilometers (44 miles) east of the city of Kherson, though the torrent was beginning to slow.

Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and the attached hydroelectric plant, which has been in an area controlled by Moscow for more than a year. Russian authorities blamed the disaster on Ukrainian shelling in the disputed area, where the river separates the two sides.

People waddled in knee-deep water in their flooded homes, and videos posted on social media showed rescuers carrying people to safety. In an aerial video, water was seen filling the streets of Nova Kakhovska, a Russian-controlled town on the eastern bank of the river.

In the Ukrainian-controlled areas of the west bank, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the military administration in the Kherson region, said in a video that the water was expected to rise another meter (about 3 feet) in the next 20 hours.

“The intensity of the floods is slightly reduced; however, due to the significant destruction of the dam, the water will continue to come,” he said.

Britain’s Defense Ministry, which has published regular reports on the war, said the water level in the Kakhova reservoir was at “record highs” before the rupture. Although not the entire structure of the dam had been washed away, the Ministry warned that “it is likely that it will continue to deteriorate over the next few days, causing additional flooding.”

The dam and power station provide electricity, as well as irrigation and drinking water, to a wide swath of southern Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

The government and United Nations officials have warned of a human and ecological catastrophe. Assessing the impact will take several days, and recovery will take much longer.

The dam collapse, long feared by both sides, added a new dimension to Russia’s 16-month-old war. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces appeared to be advancing in sections in an expected counteroffensive along the more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) front in the east and south.

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Associated Press writer Illia Novikov in kyiv contributed to this report.