Russia says evacuated 7,000 from Kherson flooded areas

Nearly 7,000 people have been evacuated from flooded areas in the war-ravaged Russia-controlled Kherson region of eastern Ukraine, its acting governor has declared.

Vladimir Saldo declared in a post on his Telegram social media channel that coordination has been made to provide essentials for affected residents who have received certificates of residency in the emergency zones at temporary accommodation centers, TASS news agency reported Sunday.

"By the end of June 10, almost 7,000 people were evacuated from the flooded territories of the Kherson region (323 of them were children, 112 people with limited mobility), including 902 people per day. Of the total number of evacuees, about 1,500 people are in temporary accommodation centers," Saldo further wrote.

Ukraine and Russia blame each other for Kakhovka dam explosion

Kiev blames Moscow for the Kakhovka dam explosion on the Dnipro River; however, Moscow says western countries have a habit of linking negative incidents to Russia.

The emergency zones, the report noted, were established after the Western-backed Ukrainian forces struck the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant with a missile on the morning of June 6, destroying the valves in the dam and prompting an uncontrolled release of water.

Thirty-five settlements and areas have been affected by floodwaters, according to the report, which noted that residents of nearby settlements are still being evacuated.

Local officials further stated that eight people were killed during the flooding. Two of them were killed in an artillery strike on an evacuation center. More than 60 people were taken to hospitals.

The destruction of the dam has caused serious damage to the environment, washed away farmlands along the Dnieper and raised the risk of the North Crimean Canal drying up.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, censured the attack on the Kakhovka HPP as a deliberate act of sabotage by Ukraine and insisted that the Kiev regime should be held responsible for the consequences.

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