Footage has emerged from flood-ridden towns after an alleged Russian attack caused a rupture of the dam that upheld Ukraine’s largest reservoir.
A brief video showed swans swimming through the eerily quiet town of Nova Kakhovka, which was previously just road without water.
Russian saboteurs are prime suspects for blowing up a Ukrainian dam, triggering massive floods, and forcing thousands to flee for their lives, while also risking Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
It's not clear what caused the breach in the Kakhovka dam - which was already damaged - but both sides have blamed each other.
Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the facility, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian military strikes.
Rishi Sunak warned that the destruction of the dam could be “the largest attack on civilian infrastructure” during the war in Ukraine.
As he flew to Washington DC for talks with President Biden, the PM said: “Our military and intelligence agencies are currently looking at it, so it’s too soon to make a definitive judgement.
“But what I can say is if it's intentional, it would represent, I think, the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, and just demonstrate the new lows that we would have seen from Russian aggression.
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“Attacks on civilian infrastructure are appalling and wrong. We've have seen previous instances of that in this conflict so far, but it's too early to say definitively.”
The 98-foot-high dam and associated hydroelectric power station sit in Russian-controlled territory along the Dnipro River about 44 miles east of the city of Kherson.
While no deaths have been reported, officials said about 22,000 people live in areas at risk of flooding in Russian-controlled areas, while 16,000 live in the most critical zone in Ukrainian-held territory.
Nearly 12,000 consumers in the city of Kherson have already been left without electricity, and water supplies are also at risk.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed Ukraine destroyed the dam to prevent a potential Russian attack on the western bank.
While Ukrainian officials said that the Russians destroyed the dam to prevent Ukraine from launching a counteroffensive in the area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky convened an urgent meeting of the National Security Council as he alleged Russian forces set off a blast inside the dam structure.
Zelenskyy previously said in October that Russia had mined the dam and power plant.
There were reports of deadly mines floating freely following the explosion that knocked the top off parts of the dam - which assists the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear plant with cooling waters.
Experts feared that if water levels plummet too far, the ability for nuclear workers to use the waters to cool the facility will be compromised and threaten a radioactive breach.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hit back at Russian claims his troops had blown up the dam, saying: “It is physically impossible to blow it up somehow from the outside.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelensky said that "a global ecological disaster is playing out now, online, and thousands of animals and ecosystems will be destroyed in the next few hours."
His words may turn out to be true as 300 animals have already died in a single incident at a nearby zoo.
Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor at Sky News, called it the "most damaging" event of war so far.
Drinking water may run short as a result of the dam breaking - even as far downstream in occupied Crimea, where canals are fed by the Dnipro River waters.
The damage could also hinder Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and distract its government, while Russia depends on the dam to supply water to Crimea.
The Russian-installed mayor of occupied Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, said he was being evacuated as water poured into the city.
Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the explosion “betrays a lack of confidence, a lack of confidence, a profoundly defensive measure, the lack of confidence in Russia’s longer-term prospects” in the war.
The US said it had intelligence that suggested Russia was the culprit behind the dam attack in Ukraine, according to two US officials and one Western official who spoke anonymously to NBC News.
