The Russian-occupied city of Nova Kakhovka in southern Ukraine — home to the dam that Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of attacking — is “flooded,” officials said Tuesday.
Russian television showed images of the city that lies on the Dnipro river with its central square entirely flooded and swans swimming near the main Soviet-era house of culture.
“Water is rising,” Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-installed head of the city administration, said on Telegram.
He said 53 buses were being sent by authorities to take people from Novaya Kakhovka and two nearby settlements to safe areas.
“We are organising temporary accommodation centres with hot meals,” he said.
“Emergency rescuers, city administration workers and soldiers are at work,” he said. “Help will be given to all those who need it.”
Leontyev posted a video of himself looking at the city from a high-rise building with the flooded central square and the Dnipro river in the background.
A reporter on Russian state television, speaking from the square, said water was rising around a statue of Lenin erected by Moscow’s forces after taking control of the city on the first day of their offensive.