The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday June 6 that Russian forces had blown up a major dam in southern Ukraine, while a Moscow-based official in the town of Nova Kakhovka in parts of the Kherson region controlled by the Russians, denied this information. " The Kakhovka reservoir was destroyed by the Russian occupation forces ," the southern command of the Ukrainian armed forces said on its Facebook page on Tuesday. The extent of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, as well as likely areas of flooding are being clarified. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the Ukrainian statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold an emergency meeting on the matter, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said on Twitter on Tuesday.

For its part, the Russian public news agency TASS, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter, claimed that the large dam of Nova Kakhovka, had been destroyed and the territory flooded. The circumstances of this event remain unclear. TASS quoting the same source, said there were no airstrikes on the dam overnight. A second Russian state news agency, RIA, says the upper part of the dam was destroyed by shellfire, citing the mayor of Nova Kakhovka.

Originally, TASS relied on the words of the mayor of Nova Kakhovka, who denied this information. " Everything is calm and quiet, there is nothing at all ," said Mayor Vladimir Leontiev, quoted by the Russian agency TASS.