🔴 Live: Ukraine says Russian forces blew up Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson region

8:21am: Several villages on Dnipro River flooded: Ukrainian official

Several villages have been “completely or partially flooded” following damage to the Russian-occupied Kakhovka dam and evacuations from the area have begun, said a Ukrainian official.

“About 16,000 people are in the critical zone on the right bank of the Kherson region,” Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson miliary administration, said on social media, adding that there was flooding in eight areas along the Dnipro River.

8:08am: Kakhovka blast is ‘heinous war crime’, says Ukraine’s foreign minister

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has condemned the Nova Kakhovka dam blast.

“Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam inflicting probably Europe’s largest technological disaster in decades and putting thousands of civilians at risk. This is a heinous war crime,” said Kuleba on Twitter.

“The only way to stop Russia, the greatest terrorist of the 21st century, is to kick it out of Ukraine,” he added.

7:55am: Situation at nuclear plant ‘under control’ after dam blast, Ukraine agency says

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam by Russian forces in southern Ukraine poses a threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, but the situation at the facility is under control, said Ukraine’s state atomic power agency.

“Water from the Kakhovka Reservoir is necessary for the station to receive power for turbine capacitors and safety systems of the ZNPP,” Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. “Right now the station’s cooling pond is full: as of 8:00am, the water level is 16.6 metres, which is sufficient for the station’s needs.”

“Currently, the situation at the ZNPP is under control, Ukrainian personnel are monitoring all indicators,” it said.

7:40am: Zelensky says Kakhovka dam blast proves Russian forces ‘must be expelled’ 

Russia’s destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine confirms that Moscow’s forces “must be expelled” from all of Ukraine, said President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Russian terrorists. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“Not a single metre should be left to them, because they use every metre for terror.”

7:33am: ‘Nightmare scenario’ appears to unfold with dam blast

Reporting from Kyiv, FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg says it seems like the development that was “feared and much discussed last October, that one side or the other would blow up the dam, with both sides accusing each other, has actually happened”.

Ukraine and Russia had previously accused each other of targeting the dam with attacks, and last October Zelensky predicted that Russia would destroy the dam in order to cause a flood.

“This is a nightmare scenario for hundreds of thousands of residents downstream,” notes Cragg.

7:05am: Zelensky aide calls Nova Kakhovka dam blast an ‘ecocide’

Russia’s destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine represents an “ecocide”, but national and regional officials are working to ensure the safety of local residents, said Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, on Telegram.

6:54am: Zelensky to hold emergency meeting over Nova Kakhovka dam blast

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will hold an emergency meeting over the Nova Kakhovka dam blast in southern Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, has said on Twitter.

6:49am: Evacuation near Nova Kakhovka dam starts, says regional governor

The evacuation of areas near the Kakhovka region in southern Ukraine has begun, the governor of the Kherson region in Ukraine announced on Telegram. 

“Within five hours the water will reach a critical level,” regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram channel on 6:45am local time (0345 GMT).

Russia’s TASS state news agency cited emergency services as saying that some 80 settlements in the area may be affected by the destruction of the dam.

5:30am: Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson region blown up by Russian forces

The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s Kherson region was blown up by Russian forces, the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday.

“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the command said on its Facebook page.

Earlier, Russian state media quoted the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka as denying the reports.

“Everything is quiet and calm, there is nothing at all,” Russia’s TASS agency cited the mayor, Vladimir Leontiev as saying.

5:00am: Russia says US-built F-16s could ‘accommodate’ nuclear weapons if sent to Ukraine

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that US-built F-16 fighter jets can ‘accommodate’ nuclear weapons and warned that supplying Kyiv with them will escalate the conflict further.

“We must keep in mind that one of the modifications of the F-16 can ‘accommodate’ nuclear weapons,” Lavrov said in a speech at a military base in Dushanbe in Tajikistan, according to a transcript on the ministry’s website.

“If they do not understand this, then they are worthless as military strategists and planners.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has long appealed for the F-16 jets, saying their appearance with Ukrainian pilots would be a sure signal from the world that Russia’s invasion would end in defeat.

US President Joe Biden told G7 leaders last month that Washington supported joint allied training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters

4:41am: Wagner boss slams Russian claims of enemy losses as ‘wild fantasies’

Russia’s claims that its military had inflicted massive casualties on advancing Ukrainian troops are “wild fantasies”, the boss of Russian mercenary group Wagner said Tuesday.

Moscow’s defence ministry said Monday it had thwarted a Ukrainian offensive, killing a total of “1,500 servicemen” and destroying more than 100 armoured vehicles.

“To destroy one and a half thousand people, it must be such a massacre, within one day, over 150 kilometres (90 miles), one hell of a massacre,” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram in response to the claims.

“Therefore, I think that these are just some wild fantasies.”

Prigozhin also said Monday that Kyiv’s troops had made gains near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which Russia claimed to have seized control of last month.

Russian troops, he said, were “slowly” leaving the village of Berkhivka near Bakhmut, which he said was a “disgrace”.

Prigozhin has been embroiled in a public spat with Russia’s regular army and has accused Moscow’s military leadership of not supplying enough ammunition, among other criticisms.

1:33am: Russia, Ukraine face off at World Court over MH17 airliner downing

Ukraine and Russia face off at the top United Nations court on Tuesday over Moscow’s alleged backing of pro-Russian separatists blamed for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in 2014.

Judges at the International Court of Justice will hear Ukraine’s claim that Moscow violated a UN anti-terrorism treaty by equipping and funding pro-Russian forces who international investigators concluded shot down the jetliner over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam and was bound for Kuala Lumpur when it was struck by a Russian-made missile on July 17, 2014 as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces, the precursor of today’s war.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)