Tons of of Ukrainians living in villages along the Dnieper got lower than five hours to evacuate their homes on Tuesday after Russian forces said Russian forces blew up a large dam, triggering a flood of rushing water within the war-torn region.
Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration, said the Russian army “committed one other act of terror” after the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry advised residents of 10 riverside villages positioned below the dam, in addition to parts of town of Kherson, to gather all vital documents, take their pets and leave their homes.
Flood waters were expected to achieve “critical levels” in only five hours, Prokudin said in a video posted on Telegram shortly before 7am
The dam, inbuilt 1956, holds roughly 4.8 billion gallons of water – the dimensions of Utah’s Great Salt Lake – and supplies cooling water to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the Russian-controlled Zaporozhye Power Plant. Russian officials said there was no imminent threat to the nuclear power plant due to dam’s explosion.
“Kachovka [dam] was blown up by the Russian occupation forces,” the Southern Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Facebook. “The extent of the damage, the speed and volume of the water, and the likely areas of flooding are being clarified.”
Aerial footage re-uploaded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shows a rush of water overtaking the dam and quickly flowing into the river below.
![The head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration called Russia's attack on the dam](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/fvfdcsd.png?w=1024)
![The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs advised the inhabitants of the village on the Dnieper to evacuate their homes.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/newspress-collage-27360230-1686032905243.jpg?1686018676&w=1024&1686018676)
“Russian terrorists,” he tweeted alongside the video. “The destruction of the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant only confirms to the entire world that they should be driven out of each corner of Ukrainian land.”
Zelensky called an emergency meeting to plan a response to the life-threatening crisis following the dam explosion.
![A satellite image shows the Nova Kakhovka Dam in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/2023-06-06T052429Z_928211974_RC29D1ASOLRD_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS.jpg?w=1024)
In October, he suggested that Russia would destroy the dam and cause a devastating flood in the world.
With postal wires