KYIV: Flooding from the Kakhovka dam breach extends over 600 square kilometres on the Ukrainian-held right bank of the Dnipro River and the Russian-held left bank, the region's governor said on Thursday.
"The average level of flooding is 5.61 metres. 600 square kilometres of the Kherson region are under water, of which 32% is the right bank and 68% is the left bank," Kherson region governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on social media.
"The average level of flooding is 5.61 metres," he said, adding that "despite the danger and heavy Russian shelling, the evacuation from the flooded area continues".
Prokudin said the situation in Russian-held areas was "extremely difficult".
Rescuers evacuate local residents from a flooded area after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine, on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters)
The state emergency service of Ukraine said 1,995 people had been evacuated from flooded areas, including 103 children.
Many more have fled of their own accord.
The state emergency service said that on the Ukrainian-held side of the river "a total of 20 settlements and 2,629 houses" had been flooded.
The floods have submerged parts of the regional capital, Kherson.
Around 14,000 houses have been flooded after Ukraine's Kakhovka dam burst, with around 4,300 people evacuated, Russian state-owned news agency TASS cited the country's security services as saying on Thursday.
The Kakhovka dam, which sits on the Dnipro river on the frontline between Ukrainian and Russian-controlled territory, burst on Tuesday.
