Ukraine-Russia news – latest: Mines dislodged by Kakhovka dam attack could pose danger ‘for decades’

Mines uprooted and dispersed by floodwaters surging downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam across swathes of southern Ukraine could pose a grave danger to civilians for decades to come, the Red Cross said.

The vast Soviet-era Kakhovka dam, under Russian control, was breached in the early hours of Tuesday, unleashing floodwaters across a swathe of the warzone and endangering the lives and welfare of tens of thousands of people.

Ukraine blamed Russia for blowing it up. Russia said Ukraine sabotaged the dam at the behest of the West to constrict water supplies to Crimea and to distract from a faltering offensive. Some Russian-backed officials said the dam may have collapsed.

The waters have also washed over countless land mines sown during the 15-month war and nobody now knows where they are: they could still be in the minefields or could be stuck in the river mud or in fields, gardens and roads across a vast area.

“In the past we knew where the hazards were. Now we don’t know. All we know is that they are somewhere downstream,” said Erik Tollefsen, head of the Weapon Contamination Unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“It is with a certain horror that we look at the news coming out,” said Tollefsen in an audio clip, adding that World War Two mines found underwater in Denmark in 2015 were still active.

The war in Ukraine, the largest in Europe since World War Two, has left a vast amount of mines and unexploded ordnances across swathes of the country - a risk campaigners have been warning about since Russia sent in troops in February last year.

Overnight Russian shelling killed three people, including a four-year-old boy, in the town of Ukrainsk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the regional governor said on Thursday.

Five people, including three children, were also wounded in the same attack, and two were wounded in atatcks elsewhere in the region, governor Pavlo Kirilenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters was unable to verify the report.

Satellite images have revealed the damage from the massive collapse of a major dam and hydroelectric power plant in southern Ukraine.

The critical soviet-era Nova Kakhovka dam, which lies along the Dnipro river in Russia-held Kherson, was blown up on Tuesday and collapsed soon after, sending water gushing into nearby villages and towns in the region with a 42,000-strong population.

The UN said the collapse will have “catastrophic” and “far-reaching consequences” for thousands of people with the loss of homes, food, safe water and livelihoods even as Russia and Ukraine traded accusations over the incident.

The latest satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies to The Independent on Tuesday showed the “largely destroyed” Nova Kakhovka dam and the hydroelectric plant as well as wide swathes of heavily flooded towns and villages.

War-torn Ukraine is reeling from the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which saw its reservoir burst causing chaos for miles around.

The catastrophe on Tuesday forced thousands of residents of nearby towns and villages to evacuate their homes as the floodwater barrelled towards them and left some climbing onto rooftops or into trees to escape the raging torrents.

Hundreds of thousands more have been left without access to clean drinking water in the region as a result of the eco-disaster on the Dnipro River, prompting relief workers to rush fresh supplies to the area as they struggle with the problems of mass resettlement.

About 600 square kilometres, or 230 square miles, of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine was under water on Thursday following the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, the regional governor said.

Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said 68% of the flooded territory was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River. The “average level of flooding” in the Kherson region on Thursday morning was 5.61 metres (18.41 ft), he said.

“We’re already working. We will help everyone that has ended up in trouble,” he said in a video statement of the flooding caused by the collapse of the dam, which is about 60 km upstream from Kherson.

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Ukraine blame each other for the destruction of the Russian-occupied dam on Tuesday.

“Despite the immense danger and constant Russian shelling, evacuation from zones of flooding is continuing,” Prokudin said.

He said almost 2,000 people had left flooded territory as of Thursday morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address late on Wednesday that it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied areas due to the flooding.

The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam will likely turn Ukraine’s southern fields “into deserts” within the year – sparking a global food security crisis, top Ukrainian officials have warned.

Ukraine’s emergency services are carrying out rescue operations across dozens of towns and villages in the wake of the dam – which is under Russian occupation – unleashing the waters of one of Europe’s largest reservoirs across the war-torn south. The deluge has destroyed homes, drowned animals, severed clean water supplies and forced thousands of people to evacuate.

The sudden emptying of the reservoir has crippled key irrigation systems in three surrounding regions. That has stopped the water supply to nearly 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, and endangered the production of 4 million tonnes of grain and oil crops, Ukraine’s agricultural ministry wrote in a statement.

Our chief international correspondent Bel Trew reports:

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa had a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin where he briefed him on the upcoming African leaders peace mission to Russia and Ukraine, the South African presidency said on Thursday.

Putin expressed his desire to receive the peace mission, the presidency statement said.

Environmental experts have warned that the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse will have long-term effects akin to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Ukraine says Russia blew up the dam, most likely as an attempt to slow down Kyiv’s military counteroffensive. Russia has denied responsibility.

Maksym Soroka, an environmental safety expert at the Dovkola Network NGO, told FT.com that she compares the massive attack with “the Chernobyl disaster”.

“Yes, the consequences are different, but the long-term effect on the population and the territory is the same,” she said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied areas due to the flooding, urging a “clear and rapid reaction from the world” to support victims.

At least three people have died in floods in southern Ukraine’s Kherson, local media reports have said in the first such confirmation of casualties from the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Three people drowned in the Kherson region, said Yevhen Ryshchuk, the exiled mayor of Russia-occupied Oleshky, reported The Kyiv Independent.

More than 80 settlements had been affected by the disaster, deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said after his visit to the downstream regions. He added that the flooding had released chemicals and infectious bacteria into the water.