Mass Evacuations Follow Breach Of Ukrainian Dam

Local resident Tetyana holds her pets, Tsatsa and Chunya, above the floodwater as she stands inside her house in the Ukrainian port city of Kherson on June 6. 



 

Local residents try to ride their bikes along a flooded road in Kherson.




 

A woman makes her way through a flooded road in Kherson. 

The city, which had a prewar population of nearly 300,000 people, is now facing a new humanitarian disaster. Much of Kherson's infrastructure was destroyed during an eight-month Russian occupation.

 

A resident gestures as he wades across the floodwaters in Kherson.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of blowing up the huge Soviet-era dam on the Dnieper River, in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called an act of "terror."

Residents wait for an evacuation train at the railway station in Kherson.

Russia said Ukraine had carried out "deliberate sabotage" on the dam at Nova Kakhovka. It was not possible to independently verify what happened.
 

Ukrainian authorities said tens of thousands of people had evacuated. Within hours, water levels had already risen by 10 to 12 meters, they added.

People board an evacuation train at the railway station in Kherson.
 

A view of rising floodwaters near the destroyed Antonivskiy Bridge on the outskirts of Kherson.  

Residents watch the partially flooded area as waters rise in Kherson.

Rescue workers ferry residents who were evacuated from the floodwaters.

A couple and their cat huddle to stay warm after their evacuation.

Iryna Sokeryna holds her daughter Lyubov as they take cover from Russian shelling while being evacuated from a flooded neighborhood in Kherson.

The evacuation of residents continued late into the evening.