US intelligence is “leaning towards” Moscow being behind the attack on a dam in a Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine, NBC News reports.
The Biden administration is working to declassify some of its intelligence and share it – with a motive still being assessed, NBC adds.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the bursting of the Nova Kakhovka dam as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction” and said only liberating the entire country could guarantee protection against new “terrorist” acts.
“Such deliberate destruction by the Russian occupiers and other structures of the hydroelectric power station is an environmental bomb of mass destruction,” Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
He said the destruction of the dam would “not stop Ukraine and Ukrainians. We will still liberate all our land”.
“Only the complete liberation of Ukrainian land from the Russian occupiers will guarantee that there will be no more such terrorist attacks.”
Earlier, a state of emergency was declared around the dam by local Moscow-backed authorities.
Amid nearby flooding, evacuations were being prepared in the Nova Kakhovka, Golo Pristan and Oleshky districts, the latter two across the mouth of the Dnipro river from the Ukrainian-held regional capital Kherson.
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The water level in the town of Nova Kakhovka is now up by 11m, according to its Russian-installed mayor, who said the town was now underwater and that around 600 houses had been flooded.
“The water continues to mount. An evacuation is being carried out of civilians from the adjacent flooded zones to preserve all lives … There is no panic in the town,” Vladimir Leontyev said in a video message on Telegram.
An emergencies official alongside him said the water below the dam was expected to keep rising for 72 hours before subsiding and allowing a clean-up operation.
Mr Leontyev added: “This crime cannot be written off. This is a terrorist act directed against civilians, Ukrainians did it”.
Image: Damaged buildings at the dam
TASS said half the span of the 3.2km-long dam had been destroyed and the collapse of the remainder was ongoing.
Ukraine’s state hydroelectric agency said the plant had been “totally destroyed” after a blast in its engine room and could not be restored.
RIA also reported, citing the Kherson region’s head, that 22,000 people in 14 settlements had been affected so far.
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0:29
Swans swim through submerged Ukrainian town
Rescue efforts
Evacuations have started on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides of the river.
In Nova Kakhovka residents were told to “collect personal belongings and documents, take food for three days and drinking water. Turn off gas and water before leaving your residential buildings.”
A zoo called Kazkova Dibrova, located on the bank of the Dnipro, was completely flooded and all 300 animals were dead, a representative said via the zoo’s Facebook account.
Image: A local resident gestures near his house, which was flooded after the dam blew Pic: AP
On the northern side of the river, Ukraine’s interior minister said Russia was shelling areas in the southern region of Kherson from where people were being evacuated on Tuesday after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, and that two police officers had been wounded.
“The Russian military continue to shell territory where evacuation measures are being carried out. An hour ago, two police officers were wounded in the area. Shelling continues at the moment,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told Ukrainian television.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry called for residents of 10 villages on the Dnipro river’s right bank and parts of the city of Kherson to gather “essential documents and pets, turn off appliances and leave”.
Image: Ukrainian authorities providing flood relief Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Blame game
Both Ukrainian and Russian officials blamed each other for destroying the dam. Ukraine’s military said Russian forces blew up the dam.
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James Cleverly: Russian invasion led to this crisis
“The Kakhovka [dam] was blown up by the Russian occupying forces,” the south command of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Tuesday on Facebook.
“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified.”
Nova Kakhovka dam: what we know
The dam is 30m tall and 3.2km long. It holds water equal to that in the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah in a reservoir which is 240km long and up to 23km wide
Ukraine and Russia have previously accused each other of targeting the dam with attacks, and last October President Zelenskyy predicted that Russia would destroy the dam in order to cause a flood
In February, water levels were so low that many feared a meltdown at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, whose cooling systems are supplied with water from the reservoir held up by the dam
By mid-May, after heavy rains and snow melt, water levels rose beyond normal levels, flooding nearby villages. Satellite images showed water washing over damaged sluice gates
Ukraine controls five of the six dams along the Dnipro river, which runs from its northern border with Belarus down to the Black Sea and is crucial for the entire country’s drinking water and power supply
The reservoir feeds the North Crimean Canal – a channel which has traditionally supplied 85% of Crimea’s water
Andriy Yermak, the head of President Zelenskyy’s administration, said the destruction was an attempt to “raise the stakes” in its full-scale invasion and stoke fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
Image: A satellite image shows the Kakhovka dam in October 2022. Pic: European Union/ Copernicus Sentinel-2 L2A
Russian forces blew up the dam “in a panic”, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency added.
The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general has started “urgent investigations” into whether the blast is a war crime or could be possible criminal environmental destruction, or ‘ecocide’. Ukraine is one of a small number of states, including Russia, that have criminalised ‘ecocide’.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine had sabotaged the dam to distract attention from its faltering counteroffensive and was also intended to deprive Crimea of the freshwater it receives from the reservoir.
“We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side,” Mr Peskov told reporters.
Image: Emergency services at work in a Russian-occupied area Pic: National Police of Ukraine/Reuters
Asked about allegations Russia had destroyed the dam, Mr Peskov said: “We can strongly reject this. We officially declare that here we are definitely talking about deliberate sabotage from the Ukrainian side.”
He said the sabotage could “potentially have very serious consequences for several tens of thousands of residents of the region”.
Nuclear nightmare
The dam was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and supplies water to the Crimean peninsula and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.
Ukraine’s state atomic agency said the dam’s destruction posed a threat to the nuclear plant but that the situation at the facility was currently under control.
Image: The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is in Russian hands
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Twitter it was closely monitoring the situation but there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk at [the] plant”.
Image: Nova Kakhovka map
International condemnation
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned “the destruction of Kakhovka dam is an abhorrent act [and] intentionally attacking exclusively civilian infrastructure is a war crime”.
An aid worker in Gaza has told Sky News the food situation in the enclave is “absolutely desperate” and “the worst it’s ever been”.
Her comments to chief presenter Mark Austincome amid fresh outcry over aid restrictions, with the UK joining 24 other countries to urge an immediate end to the war.
It also comes as at least 12 more Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded when tanks shelled a tent encampment in western Gaza City, according to health authorities.
Medics, speaking early on Tuesday, said two shells were fired at tents housing displaced people from tanks positioned north of the Shati camp.
Israel hasn’t yet commented on the reports.
Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save The Children, spoke to Sky News from Deir al Balah, a city where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge during repeated waves of mass displacement.
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She said: “One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, ‘We are all walking together towards death’. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza.
“There is no food for their children, it’s absolutely desperate here.”
Image: Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen. Pic: Reuters
“The markets are empty,” she said. “People may even have cash in their pockets yet they cannot buy bread [or] vegetables.
“My team have said to me, ‘There’s nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day.”
Israel launched a ground assault on southern and eastern Deir al Balah for the first time on Monday after having issued an evacuation order.
Local medics said at least three people were killed when houses and mosques were hit by tank shelling.
Sources told Reuters news agency that Israel believes some of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas in October 2023 could be in the area.
Image: Smoke rises during strikes amid the Israeli operation in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Ms Cummings’s remarks came as the UK and 24 other nations issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire.
The statement criticised aid distribution in Gaza, which is being managed by a US and Israel-backed organisation, Gaza Health Foundation (GHF).
“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the joint statement said.
The 25 countries also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages captured by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 attacks.
Lammy promises £40m for Gaza
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has promised £40m for humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
He told MPs: “We are leading diplomatic efforts to show that there must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state involving the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, in the security and governance of the area.
“Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza, nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism.”
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2:53
Lammy: ‘There must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state’
Addressing the foreign secretaries’ joint written statement, charity worker Liz Allcock – who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in Gaza – told Sky News: “While we welcome this, there have been statements in the past 21 months and nothing has changed.
“In fact, things have only got worse. And every time we think it can’t get worse, it does.”
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“Without a reversal of the siege, the lack of supplies, the constant bombardment, the forced displacement, the killing, the militarisation of aid, we are going to collapse as a humanitarian response,” she said.
“And this would do a grave injustice to the 2.2 million people we’re trying to serve.
“An immediate and permanent ceasefire, and avenues for accountability in line with international law, is the minimum people here deserve.”
The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Donald Trump is clearly seething over the term ‘TACO’ (Trump always chickens out) – a phrase that has characterised financial market trading over the past few months.
It suggests that for all the president’s bluster and threats during his on-off trade war to date, he rarely follows through.
When asked by a reporter about TACO in late May, as his “liberation day” escalation remained on pause, he declared it a “nasty” question and said he wanted negotiations.
Mr Trump wants a deal but to effectively bully America’s trading partners into agreeing better terms.
It’s a playbook that has defined his time in the White House and, as things stand, more than 20 nations and territories, including Japan and South Korea, face heightened tariffs of up to 40% on their exports to the US from 1 August.
Financial markets don’t really believe it. Stock markets, for example, are still hovering near or at record levels in both the US and in Europe. The FTSE 100 closed above 9,000 points for the first time on Monday evening. TACO is ingrained in those values.
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But are markets in for a shock, especially when it comes to the fight with America’s single largest trading partner, the European Union? It was created, Mr Trump has previously claimed, to “screw” the United States.
It’s fair to say there was great optimism in the EU earlier this month that a deal, similar to that agreed between the US and UK, was looming to avert the worst of a threatened 30% baseline tariff from 1 August.
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Explained: The US-UK trade deal
But the mood music in Brussels changed at the back end of last week and now EU diplomats are even briefing that a broader range of retaliation measures is being considered beyond additional tariffs on US goods.
The seriousness of this fight should not be underestimated.
EU figures show trade in goods and services between the bloc and the US account for almost a third of all global trade, at a value in 2024 alone of €1.68trn (£1.45trn).
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Trump ‘reigniting global trade war’
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic has warned that a 30% tariff would “practically prohibit” the bloc’s transatlantic trade, according to remarks via diplomats reported by the Reuters news agency.
We’re told that, even if time runs out, a truce could theoretically be agreed soon after 1 August.
Much will depend on the EU’s response.
Does it go down the route taken by the UK and not retaliate, pending the conclusion of talks?
There is growing pressure on Brussels to call Mr Trump’s bluff.
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1:40
Trump tariff threats all ‘bluster’
The EU has a package of tariffs on €21bn of US goods ready to go from 6 August. An additional package is yet to be finalised.
France is demanding US services are hit too, with even Germany now saying such an escalation should be considered.
The so-called “anti-coercion” instrument, as it’s known, would also potentially allow the bloc to limit US companies’ access to financial service markets in the EU.
So what happens after 1 August could be even more explosive.
But there is every reason to believe that a tit-for-tat escalation is unlikely, at least for long.
The very reason Donald Trump rowed back on his “liberation day” tariffs in April, allowing 90 days for talks, was likely the dire financial market reaction that followed news of the widespread duties.
You have a president demanding interest rate cuts (at a time when inflation is on the rise due to the impact of tariffs) in a bid to boost flagging economic growth.
Mr Trump says his trade war is all about boosting US manufacturing jobs but, at the end of the day, no powerbase of voters is going to accept a threat to the value of their investments for long.
No big US company will stand by and see its sales suffer.
At least 19 people have died after a Bangladesh air force plane crashed into a college campus, the military said.
The aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Uttara, in the northern area of the capital Dhaka, where students were taking tests or attending regular classes.
The pilot was one of the people killed, and, according to the military, 164 were injured in the incident.
The Bangladeshmilitary’s public relations department added that the aircraft was an F-7 BGI, and had taken off at 1.06pm local time before crashing shortly after.
Video shows fire and smoke rising from the crash site, with hundreds looking on.
Image: Pics: Reuters
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Bengali-language daily newspaper Prothom Alo said that most of the injured were students with burn injuries.
Image: Pics: Reuters
Citing the duty officer at the fire service control room, Prothom Alo also reported that the plane had crashed on the roof of the college canteen.
Rafiqa Taha, a 16-year-old student at the school who was not present at the time of the crash, told the Associated Press that the school has around 2,000 students.
“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” she added. “My God! It’s my school.”