MOSCOW A torrent of water burst through a huge dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, flooding a swathe of the war zone and forcing villagers to flee.
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam in a deliberate war crime.
The Kremlin said Ukraine had sabotaged the dam, to distract attention from a counter-offensive which Moscow claims is faltering. Some Russian-installed officials said the dam had burst on its own. Neither side offered public evidence of who was to blame.
The Geneva Conventions explicitly ban targeting dams in war because of the danger to civilians.
By mid-morning in the city of Kherson on the Ukrainian-held side, a pier on a tributary of the Dnipro had already been submerged.
“I was evacuated from the flooded village of Antonivka. Our local school and stadium downtown were flooded... The road was completely flooded, our bus got stuck,” Ms Lidia Zubova, 67, told Reuters as she waited for a train that was evacuating people from Kherson.
Ukrainian police released video of officers carrying an elderly woman to safety and rescuing dogs in villages being evacuated as the waters rose.
On the Russian-controlled bank, the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka town said water levels have risen to a nominal lim, Tass news agency reported.
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