A Russian-controlled dam near the frontline that supplies southern Ukraine and annexed Crimea with drinking water was significantly damaged early Tuesday, flooding the area and threatening the nearby nuclear power plant.Drone footage widely shared online andoriginallypublished by pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian bloggers showed the broken Kakhovka dam with water flowing freely downstream.Well over 18 cubic kilometers of water stored in #KakhovkaReservoir now flowing downstream towards Kherson City, tweeted retired United States Air Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meteorologist who monitors the dam, David Helms.The water is expected to reach "critical levels" within hours, said the Ukrainian governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, as he urged residents to await evacuation buses.Ukraines militaryaccusedRussian forces of blowing up the 30-meter-tall and 3.2-kilometer-long Kakhovka dam.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has summoned an emergency national security council session in connection to the Kakhovka dam collapse.An unnamed source in the Kherson regions Russian administration confirmed the dams collapse and flooding to the state-run news agency TASS hours after denials from the Moscow-installed authorities.But Russian-installed officials provided conflicting claims on whether the Kakhovka dam failed due to new Ukrainian attacks or existing damage from previous fighting.The UN's nuclear watchdog said that it saw "no immediate nuclear safety risk" at theZaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest.The dam sits on the Dnipro River, which provides cooling water for the plant."The IAEA is aware of reports of damage at Ukraine's Kakhovka dam; IAEA experts at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant are closely monitoring the situation; no immediate nuclear safety risk at plant," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a tweet.Andrei Alexeyenko, head of the local government in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region, said there was there was "no threat" to major population centers but added that more than 22,000 people were at risk."The increase of the water level downstream from the hydroelectric power station is between two and four meters which is no threat to major population centers," he said.Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-installed mayor of the town of Nova Kakhovka where the dam is located, said residents of "around 300 homes" had been evacuated."We are proceeding with the evacuation," he was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.He said Ukrainian forces, which Russia has accused of striking the Kakhovka dam, were continuing bombardment in the area."The town is still being targeted by missile strikes," Leontyev said.Water levels have reached a 30-year high at the Kakhovka reservoir in recent months, according to satellite measurements.Experts told The New York Times in May it appeared that Russian forces allowed too much water to enter the reservoir during winter snowmelt and spring rains.Destroying the dam and its hydroelectric station, which provides electricity to tens of thousands of Ukrainians, would align with Russia's efforts to knock out critical Ukrainian energy infrastructure, experts have told The Moscow Times.However, terrain levels mean the flooding would likely be worse on the Russian-held left bank of the Dnipro, making a detonation of explosives on the dam an unlikely move for Moscow.Lowering the river level behind the dam both threatens water supplies to Moscow-annexed Crimea and risks cutting off access to cooling water for the Russian-controlled nuclear power plant in Ukraines Zaporizhzhia region Europe's largest.Military bloggers were divided over the flooding's implications for Ukrainian forces' anticipated counteroffensive to reclaim territories captured by Russia during its 15-month invasion.AFP contributed reporting.
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