As worries mount that hundreds of communities could be submerged by floodwater, Ukraine has accused Russia of detonating a dam on the Dnipro River in Nova Kakhovk.
At least 24 distinct communities in Kherson, the Ukrainian province occupied by Moscow, are currently undergoing evacuations.
This morning, a dam wall fell, putting drinking water supplies and Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in peril.
The bomb has affected several locals, including Ukrainian TV chef Olia Hercules.
She took to Instagram and Twitter and posted a video about what happened.
She said: ‘They [Russia] blew up the dam in Nova Kakhovk.
‘Not a lot of people know how much suffering and ecological upheaval they have caused when they built it in the 1950s.
‘Today with no warning to people to anyone, they just blew it up creating another ecological disaster, another human disaster.
‘My heart is broken. How can they hate life so much?
‘And today apart from urging everyone to continue supporting us, I appeal to all the eco-warriors of the world because I feel like there hasn’t been enough support from you.
‘They [Russia] are ecological terrorists, they are terrorists in every sense of the word.
‘Right now cattle are being drowned, people are of course losing their homes.
‘There has been irreversible damage. I cannot even explain what has been happening. It is just horrible.’
Locals have been told by Russian authorities to collect personal belongings and documents, take food for 3 days and drinking water.
They’ve also been told to ‘turn off gas and water before leaving your residential buildings’.
A state of emergency has been declared in the Nova Kakhovka district with reports of Russian soldiers patrolling the streets.
Already a zoo called Kazkova Dibrova, located right on the bank of the Dnipro, was completely flooded and all 300 animals were dead.
The water level in the district is reported to have risen by more than 11 metres since the dam explosion.
Ukraine’s interior ministry has also claimed the southern region of Kherson – where people are being evacuated – is being shelled.
Intelligence chief Olexsiy Danilov accused Russia’s 205th Motorized Rifle Brigade, who were stationed nearby, of carrying out the attack.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, says it has launched a criminal investigation following the dam breach after both sides blamed one another for the explosion.
The breach has been called an ‘ecological disaster’ with the Dnipro River now contaminated with industrial substances.
Ukraine’s military has accused Russia’s forces of blowing up the dam and President Zelensky said: ‘This is just one day of Russian aggression. This is just one Russian act of terrorism.
‘This is just one Russian war crime. Now Russia is guilty of brutal ecocide.
‘Any comments are superfluous. The world must react. Russia is at war against life, against nature, against civilisation.
‘Russia must leave the Ukrainian land and must be held fully accountable for its terror.’
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on Twitter the dam’s rupture ‘clearly qualifies as a war crime’ because it is the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
He promised to hold Russia and its proxies accountable.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly described the act as a ‘catastrophe’ and ‘abhorrent’ act.
He said: ‘The destruction of Kakhovka dam is an abhorrent act.
‘Intentionally attacking exclusively civilian infrastructure is a war crime.
‘The UK stands ready to support Ukraine and those affected by this catastrophe.’
The foreign secretary visited Kyiv this week, where he met his counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and Zelensky.
Ukrainian forces were widely seen to be moving forward with a long-anticipated counteroffensive in patches along more than 1,000-kilometers of frontline in the east and south of Ukraine.
But this damage could hinder Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and distract its government, while at the same time Russia depends on the dam to supply water to Crimea.
The Nova Kakhovka dam is not the first to have been targeted since the start of the conflict.
A missile attack destroyed the dam at Karachunivske reservoir near the city of Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine last September.
This caused widespread flooding and people were told to evacuate.
A month later, there were missile attacks on hydroelectric dams at Zaprorizhzhia, Kremenchuk, and on the Dniester river, in the west of the country.