MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. The number of houses flooded after the dam of the Kakhovka hydro-electric power plant (HPP) was breached by Kiev’s shelling increased to almost 22,300, a spokesman for the regional emergency services told TASS on Friday.

"According to the latest data, almost 22,300 houses have been submerged in 17 settlements. The water level in Novaya Kakhovka has dropped by two meters to ten meters," the spokesman said.

Presently, 1,117 people, including 110 children and 35 persons with reduced mobility, are in three temporary accommodations, he said.

Russian Deputy Emergencies Minister Anatoly Suprunovsky said on Thursday that the breach of the Kakhovka hydro-electric dam submerged 14,000 houses in 15 settlements in the Kherson Region. The evacuation of people is currently underway. In all, 5,000 local residents, including 178 children and 62 persons with reduced mobility, have been evacuated from the flooded areas of the Novaya Kakhovka urban district and the Alyoshki and Golaya Pristan municipal districts in the Kherson Region.

Overnight to June 6, the Ukrainian military delivered a strike against the Kakhovka HPP, destroying the plant’s hydraulic valves and triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. As many as 35 settlements are in the flood area. Residents of nearby communities are being evacuated.

The Kakhovka HPP destruction has caused serious damage to the environment, agricultural fields have been washed away and there is a risk of the shallowing of the North Crimean Canal. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed the strike against the Kakhovka HPP as Ukraine’s deliberate subversive act. He added that the Kiev regime must be held fully accountable for all the ensuing consequences.