大象传媒

Thousands of people are being evacuated from flooded downstream areas in Ukraine's southern Kherson region following the destruction of the Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka dam.

Water has engulfed some eighty towns and villages on both sides of the Dnipro river. President Zelensky said Russia must be held to account for blowing up the dam describing it as a war against "life, nature and civilisation".

The Kremlin has denied the accusations, blaming Ukrainian saboteurs instead.

Newsday heard from Inna Sovsun - an MP in the Ukrainian parliament and Deputy Head of the Golos Zmin party which is part of the current opposition - who compared the disaster with the fallout from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in 1986.

"The level of water is expected to grow over the next 20 hours. This is the biggest human-made catastrophe in Ukraine since Chernobyl."

(Pic: Rising waters flood the House of Culture in Nova Kakhovka after the nearby dam is destroyed; Credit: Reuters)