Drone video emerged late Monday showing a deluge of water gushing from a sizeable breach in a major dam in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, as Kyiv blamed Moscow's forces for committing an "act of terror."
The critical Nova Kakhova dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine and there are multiple town and cities downstream.
The video, posted to social media and geolocated by CNN, shows the dam wall completely breached and fast-moving torrents of water flowing out into the river.
Ukraine's Operational Command South on Tuesday confirmed the dam's destruction in a post on its official Facebook page, saying they were assessing the scale of the destruction and calculating likely areas of flooding.
In a video statement posted on Telegram, Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine appointed head of the Kherson region military administration, blamed Russian forces.
"The Russian Army has committed another act of terror. It has blown up Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant. The water will reach critical level in five hours. Evacuation in the area of danger has started," he said.
CNN was not immediately able to verify Prokudin's claim.
However, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, on Tuesday denied information about the dam collapsing in an interview with Russian state media RIA Novosti, calling it "nonsense."
The escaping torrent of water has the potential to cause major destruction around Kherson city and other populated areas along the Dnipro River, according to analysts who have been fearing this breach could occur in the fighting.
In November, the dam was damaged in shelling and satellite images from Maxar Technologies obtained by CNN showed water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam.
This is a developing story. More to come.
