Dam breach in Ukraine warns of possible spread of disease, abandoned farms, and landmines

Rescue operations are underway in Ukraine, where at least eight people have been killed in flooding caused by Tuesday’s dam collapse in the city of New Kakhovka on the Dnieper River. The United Nations has warned that a breach in the dam could lead to the spread of waterborne diseases, and the Red Cross warned that the flood has triggered a vast number of landmines, posing a threat to civilians for decades . The burst is emptying a reservoir that supplies water to more than 400,000 hectares of Ukraine’s most fertile and productive farmland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited flood-hit areas on Thursday morning and accused Russian armed forces of shelling rescue teams trying to reach survivors. Zelensky denied any involvement by his government in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in September, when The Washington Post reported that a small team of divers under the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had conducted an underwater attack on the pipelines. carry through. Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian officials accused each other of damaging a pipeline used to transport ammonia fertilizer from Russia to Ukraine. The loss could prevent renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. All of this happened as the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed that they had made progressive gains on the Eastern Front. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday rejected calls to negotiate an immediate ceasefire with Russia.