Zoo animals drown in flood water after Ukrainian dam is destroyed
by Water levels in the southern Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka continue to rise as a result of the explosion of a Soviet-era dam.
Playgrounds, cafes and the summer theatre are all under water, mayor Volodymyr Kovalenko warned in the early hours of this morning.
Reports that the animals in the city’s zoo have drowned in the flooding have also circulated on social media.
Footage shared by Ukrainian officials on Twitter shows the rising water in Kazkova Dibrova zoo.
As thousands of people in the Russian occupied Kherson region have been told to evacuate, some animals have been left stranded.
Another video shows a police officer carefully maneuvering rising waters to rescue a dog.
Its head can be seen just inches above the stream as the officer tries to pick it up.
Swans have also been captured swimming around the city’s administrative centre.
Residents have been urged to not abandon pets on chains, or in cages, during the evacuation.
A torrent of water from the destroyed Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam is now making its way down the Dnipro.
People living among the banks report that at some points the levels have already reached the top of trees.
The blown up barrier, located on the river, formed a reservoir that supplies water for drinking, agriculture and the cooling of the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The reservoir also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Ukraine accused occupiers of targeting the dam from the inside in a deliberate war crime.
Meanwhile, Russian-installed officials gave conflicting accounts, some blaming Ukrainian shelling, others saying the dam had burst on its own.
Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram: ‘Russian terrorists. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.’
Russians had ‘carried out an internal detonation of the structures’ of the dam, he said, adding that ‘about 80 settlements are in the zone of flooding’.
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