Britain accused Russia of a battle crime yesterday amid claims Kremlin forces blew up a significant dam in southern Ukraine.

The “abhorrent act” triggered fears of a nuclear disaster and induced intensive flooding with tens of hundreds of houses vulnerable to being washed away.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the Kakhovka dam was “mined by Russian occupiers”.

Moscow denied the accusation and claimed Ukraine attacked the dam in a “deliberate act of sabotage”.

The huge construction throughout the Dnipro River kinds a part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric energy station but in addition feeds the cooling system for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant –the largest such facility in Europe.

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A state of emergency has been declared and the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed it was urgently monitoring occasions, but it surely harassed the scenario was presently “under control”.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly described the assault as a “war crime” and a “catastrophe”. He added: “The destruction of Kakhovka dam is an abhorrent act. Intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime.”

Nuclear specialists stated the danger of a meltdown, like that in Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986, was small.

Professor Philip Thomas of Bristol University stated: “All six reactors at Zaporizhzhia have been shut down for over eight months, which means their requirements for cooling water will be only a fraction of what they needed when they were operating.”

However, not less than 24 completely different settlements within the Kherson area are already flooded, Ukraine’s inside ministry stated final night time.

Mass evacuations are persevering with throughout the world. And as ­torrents of water continued to gush via the stricken dam, authorities warned river ranges might rise by greater than 40ft in some areas.

In one occasion, a whole home was seen floating down the river.

Witnesses stated there was no shelling on the time of the dam breaching, only a sudden “bang” that resulted in sections beginning to fall away.

One stated: “The ground is shaking under my feet. Look, it’s falling! [Water] is washing everything away.” President Zelensky laid the blame squarely at Russian chief Vladimir Putin’s door, saying: “The destruction of the Kakhovka hydro-electric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that the Russians must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.

“Not a single metre should be left to them because they use every metre for terror. It’s only Ukraine’s victory that will return security. And this victory will come. The terrorists will not be able to stop Ukraine with water, missiles or anything else.” European Council president Charles Michel additionally blamed the assault on Russia and, like Mr Cleverly, stated the destruction of civilian infrastructure was a battle crime.

Jens Stoltenberg, secretary ­common of Nato, described the assault as “outrageous”.

Ukraine believes the explosions on the dam had been brought on by mines.

Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the navy’s south operational command, stated: “It was severely damaged. It was blown up from the inside.

“The Russians decided that this way they would be able to stop the counter-offensive of Ukrainian forces.” But Russian authorities – who management the city of Nova Kakhovka the place the dam is located – rapidly blamed Ukraine for mining the dam.

Vladimir Leontyev, head of the occupation administration, confirmed the higher a part of the dam had been destroyed within the blast, however not the whole construction.

He stated: “At about 2am, numerous strikes were carried out on the Kakhovka hydro-electric power station. As a result, water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to uncontrollably be discharged downstream.”

The water from the reservoir additionally provides Russian-held Crimea.