Russia is blamed by the Ukrainians for blowing up the southern dam

The power plant in Ukraine has been continuously leaking during the recent fallout from the Kakhovka Reservoir and its hydroelectric power plant

The Russians didn’t let enough water through the structure’s sluice gates in the spring. Water started to overtop the dam and flooded nearby areas by last month.

The fallout could have broad consequences: Flooding homes, streets and businesses downstream; depleting water levels upstream that help cool Europe’s largest nuclear power plant; and draining supplies of drinking water to the south in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed.

The Kakhovka Reservoir had been holding record amounts of water. In recent weeks, its water levels surged to record highs, in an abrupt shift after levels fell sharply over the fall and winter.

The CEO of Ukrhydroenergo said on social media that the water will likely take a week or more to go down, but it will peak on Wednesday morning.

By 4 p.m. local time, water submerged 13 settlements and more than 260 houses on the river’s right bank, according to Ukrhydroenergo, Ukraine’s state hydroelectric company, citing preliminary data. More than 1,339 people were evacuated, it said.

In addition to the flooding threat that abruptly caused thousands of people to flee to higher ground, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s website says at least 150 tons of machine oil used in the plant’s turbines was swept into the Dnipro River, with an additional 300 tons at risk of following.

The breach has destroyed 16 gates, the hydroelectric power station and an earthen dam, Ukrhydroenergo, Ukraine’s hydro electric company, said in an update on Tuesday.

Things got worse this year. A road that goes through part of the dam appears to have failed on June 2.

The dam has stood since the 1950s, when it created a reservoir about the size of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It is vital to regional infrastructure and it creates electricity and sends water to municipal systems and irrigation canals.

The plant’s remaining alternatives of water need to be protected, according to Grossi. He said that a large cooling pond near the site along the Russian-held eastern bank will likely be enough to provide water for cooling for some months.

The reactors have been shut down “for many months,” Grossi said. They still require cooling to move residual heat out of their cores, but that requires much less water than normal operations.

According to the director general of the International Atomic Energy agency, the reservoir stood nearly 54 feet at 8 a.m. The cooling system of the power plant can’t be pumped if the level drops below 41.6 feet.

But they also say the plant’s circumstances are more dire than ever, as the reservoir’s falling water level is expected to cut off the main supply of water used to cool the plant’s reactors and prevent a meltdown.

The station cannot be restored, wrote the state hydro power generating company in a statement. Ukrhydroenergo also claimed that Russia blew up the station from inside the engine room.

Ukraine controls the western side of the Dnipro River (which is also called the Dnieper), and Russia controls the eastern side, including the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.

Leontyev said that the water from the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant began to flow uncontrollably downstream after the valves on the plant were destroyed. Leontyev added that damage to the station was beyond repair, and it would have to be rebuilt.

In a video posted shortly before 7 a.m., the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration said that the Russian army has committed yet another act of terror, and warned that water will reach critical levels within five hours.

Footage from what appeared to be a monitoring camera overlooking the dam that was circulating on social media purported to show a flash, explosion and breakage of the dam.

The Disaster of a Major Dam in Kiev, the Ukr Hydroenergo Company, in the Dnipro River Valley, Ukraine

The Interior Ministry of the Ukranian Federation asked for residents of 10 villages on the Dnipro’s right bank and parts of the city of Kherson downriver to gather essential documents, turn off appliances, and leave, cautioning against possible misinformation.

Videos posted online began telling the story. One showed floodwaters inundating a long roadway; another showed a beaver scurrying for high ground from rising waters.

A senior advisor to President Zelenskyy, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that “thousands of animals and the environment will be destroyed in the next few hours.”

KYIV, Ukraine — A major dam near a nuclear power plant suddenly collapsed overnight in southern Ukraine, creating the likelihood of widespread flooding and posing an additional risk to an already troubled nuclear plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, has warned repeatedly about the risk of a nuclear accident. The agency said it was keeping an eye on the plant and didn’t see any immediate dangers.

The latest development comes as signs emerge that the Russian forces are about to be hit by a military offensive by the Ukrainians.

Video on social media shows a big chunk missing from the Kakhovka dam, on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, allowing water to surge through the opening.

Ukr hydroenergo, the company that owns the country’s hydroelectric dam, said the dam had been destroyed by a blast in the engine room.

The “Survival of the River” in the Donbas Region. A statement of Ukrainian President Ihor Klymenko in the early days of the war

The officials said that 80 cities, towns and villages are at risk because of the river, which serves as the front line in southern Ukraine.

“We are going to get water.” The situation is aggravated by the fact that some roads are being washed away. Evacuation groups are looking for other ways,” said Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

The grounds of the plant and the surrounding areas have been repeatedly hit by shelling since Russian troops took it in the early days of the war.

Russia claimed Monday it had rebuffed a large push by Ukrainian ground forces in the eastern Donbas region, which Russia described as the start of the offensive.

Zelenskyy praised the soldiers fighting around Bakhmut in his nightly address. He did not say if this was part of the larger offensive.