Description
All-terrain vehicles and rescue dinghies plough through the still-rising waters as the evacuation operation in the flooded Ukrainian city of Kherson continues following the destruction of a Russian-held dam. Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame over the destruction of the Kakhova hydroelectric dam, which took place as Ukrainian troops prepared to launch an offensive to recover lost territory, and military press officer Sergiy Sergeyev calls the flooding "a man-made catastrophe artificially created by the Russian Federation in order to secure its retreat." Flooding from the Kakhovka dam breach extends over 600 square kilometres on the Ukrainian-held right bank of the Dnipro River and the Russian-held left bank, according to the Kherson region's governor Oleksandr Prokudin. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES