Thirty-five people comprising children are nowhere to be found after a disastrous flood ravaged Southern Ukraine on Sunday, Ukraine Interior Minister, Igor Klymenko, has disclosed.
The Minister said 77 towns and villages in the southern region of Kherson and Mykolaiv had been flooded.
The flood has been described as the worst environmental catastrophe since ‘Chernobyl’.
It was gathered that the Russian- controlled Khakhovka dam along the Frontline in the Kherson region was demolished on June 6, compelling thousands of people to run away, and giving rise to fears for humanitarian and environmental disasters.
There has been buck passing between Ukraine and Russia, as Ukraine is accusing Russia of blowing up the dam on the Dnipro River while Moscow is pointing finger at Kyiv, which it claimed, fired upon the structure.
According to Klymenko, 35 people made up of children were missing in the Kherson region.
According to a reliable source, five people have died in Kherson as a result of the flood, while one person had been confirmed dead in the region of Mykolaiv.
According to a statement from the minister, 3,700 people have been evacuated from their homes in the two regions.
Ukraine Prosecutor General Andrily Kostin and representatives of the International Criminal Court, have visited the flooded territory, according to official source.
Following the visit to the flooded regions, Kostin said in a statement, “this is the worst environmental catastrophe since ‘Chernobyl’, so we are investigating not only the war crime, but also an ecocide.”
The Prosecutor General was also quoted to have said that, “the situation is very complicated.”
He added that a quantity of “dangerous” facilities and about three cemeteries, oil storage terminals and garbage dumps have been swept away by the flood.
He also disclosed that 450 tonnes of turbine oil have been spilled into the waters of Dnipro and the Black Sea.
It was also gathered that over 170 prosecutors have been investigating the breach of the dam.
“Our colleagues from the International Criminal Court are also with us,” Kostin was quoted to have said.