It will likely be impossible to repair Kahovka hydroelectric dam after the explosion that caused a breach in the structure, a Russian-appointed official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kahovka said today.

In comments on Russian state television, the city’s mayor, Vladimir Leontiev, noted that the damage caused to the dam it was the result of a series of Ukrainian strikes.

Reuters has not yet been able to independently confirm this information.

Leontiev also noted, according to Russian news agency TASS, that residents of about 300 houses were evacuated after the damage caused to the dam and added that part of the city was disconnected from the electricity supply network for security reasons.

According to Ukraine’s state-owned hydroelectric company, the Khakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in the Russian-held region of southern Ukraine was “completely destroyed” and cannot be restored after an explosion that it said inside his engine room.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Smykhal said separately that up to 80 communities were at risk of flooding after what he described as the destruction of the station’s dam by Russian forces.

Several villages have been “fully or partially” flooded in Ukraine after the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper in the Russian-held Kherson region was partially destroyed, and the evacuation of residents has begun, another Ukrainian official said.

“About 16,000 people are in a critical zone,” Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the military administration of the Kherson region, said in a social media post.

At the same time, TASS reported, citing emergency services, that the water reserves in the Crimean water reservoirs are sufficient after the rupture of the dam in Nova Kahovka.

The Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia, depends for drinking water on the North Crimean Canal, which brings water to the peninsula from the Dnieper River.

Ukraine has previously cut off water supplies to Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014, causing acute water shortages in the region.

The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, located in the Russian-controlled areas of Kherson region in southern Ukraine, was partially destroyed today, with Moscow and Kiev blaming each other for its destruction.

Kiev accuses Russian forces of destroying the dam

The Ukrainian presidency this morning accused Russia of “blowing up” the Kahovka hydroelectric dam in the southern Ukrainian region of Khresona overnight to flood the area and put the brakes on a Ukrainian offensive in preparation.

“The goal of the terrorists is obvious: to prevent the aggressive actions of the Ukrainian armed forces,” Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said in a message to reporters.

The Ukrainian military intelligence service claimed for its part that the Russian forces blew up the dam in “panic”.

“The occupying forces blew up the dam at the Kahovka Reservoir in a panic – this is an obvious act of terrorism and a war crime, which will be prosecuted in an international court.”