FLASH
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Ukraine's military said Russian forces blew up a large dam in southern Ukraine, while the Moscow-installed official in the town of Nova Kakhovka in the Russian-controlled part of Kherson region denied the claim.
"The Kakhovka reservoir was blown up by the Russian occupation forces," the southern command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on its Facebook page on Tuesday.
"The extent of the destruction, the speed and volumes of the water and the possible areas of flooding are being clarified," the Ukrainian military said.
Russian state news agency TASS quoted an unnamed source close to the matter as saying that the dam had been destroyed and the territory was being flooded.
A second Russian state news agency, RIA Novosti, quoted Moscow-installed mayor Nova Kakhovka as saying the dam had been hit by bombing that he blamed on Ukraine.
"There were some impacts" on the dam, he said, according to the news agency.
Police and emergency workers are on standby to evacuate civilians from potential flood zones as water gushes from the damaged Nova Khakova dam in the southern Kherson region, Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the ministry, the "danger zone" includes the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Liovo, Tiahynka, Poniativka, Ivanivka, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Prydniprovske, Sadove and the Korabel Island district of the city of Kherson.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will hold an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the council's secretary, Oleksii Danilov, said on Tuesday.
Evacuations from potential flood areas have already begun, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces suffered "heavy losses" during an unsuccessful attempt to advance south of the Donetsk region on Monday.
Bakhmut has been at the center of fierce fighting for months. It has little strategic value – but is symbolically important to both Kiev and Moscow.
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