MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to monitor the situation in Kherson Region after the breach of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant’s dam, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

"You know that he [the president] is in control of the situation in the Kherson Region after the sabotage at the dam, the breach of the dam," the Kremlin official said.

On Wednesday, Peskov recalled, the head of state "instructed the Emergencies Ministry to strengthen its presence there and help the local people and also to get actively involved in the efforts to eliminate the consequences of this disaster."

In the morning of June 6, the Ukrainian military launched a missile attack on the Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant, which resulted in the destruction of gate sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. In nearby Novaya Kakhovka, the level of the reservoir reached 12 meters, but the water is currently receding. According to emergency services, there are 35 communities in the flood zone, and residents of nearby villages are being evacuated. The destruction of the hydro power plant has caused serious environmental damage with farm fields along the Dnieper River being washed away. As well, there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal may run low and become too shallow.

Earlier, Peskov described the strike on the Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant as an act of deliberate sabotage by Ukrainian forces, adding that the Kiev regime should bear all of the responsibility for its consequences.