More than 1,300 people in the Kherson area have been evacuated, Ukrainian officials said, after damage to the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine triggered devastating floods in the region. The United Nations described the destruction as “monumental.”
The damage to the major dam and hydroelectric power plant — now controlled by Russia — poses strategic challenges to both sides, experts say. While Ukraine and Russia traded blame for the dam’s collapse, the United States said it has not yet been determined what happened.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
A Ukrainian zoo survived through war. The Kakhovka flood ended that: Through shelling and amid mined roads, zookeepers in Kazkova Dibrova in southern Ukraine had battled through the year to keep their animals safe following the Russian invasion. But catastrophic flooding after the destruction of a dam in the region ended that, Rachel Pannett reports.
The deluge killed 300 animals, and only a few swans and ducks survived, zoo officials said. “This is terrible grief, terrible pain,” the zoo said on Facebook.