Floodwaters from a collapsed dam kept rising in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes in a major emergency operation that brought a dramatic new dimension to the war with Russia, now in its 16th month.
Even so, authorities said water levels were expected to rise by another meter over the following 20 hours and engulf more downriver areas along the banks of the Dnieper. He said more than 1,800 houses were flooded along the Dnieper and that almost 1,500 people had been evacuated. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and adjoining power station, which sits in an area Moscow has controlled for more than a year. Russian officials blamed Ukrainian bombardment in the contested area for the collapse of the dam’s wall, where the river separates the two sides.
Experts noted that the dam, about 70 kilometers to the east of the city of Kherson, was believed to be in disrepair and vulnerable to collapse as water was already brimming over when the wall gave way. It hadn’t been producing power since November, according to officials. Underscoring the war’s global repercussions, wheat prices jumped 3% after the collapse. Ukraine and Russia are key global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food to Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.