GENICHESK, June 14. /TASS/. The total damage from the flooding caused by the major dam breach at the Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant (HPP) for people, homes, infrastructure and public facilities in the Kherson Region is approaching 40 billion rubles (over $476,369,000), the head of the region’s government, Andrey Alexeyenko reported on Wednesday.

"The total damage from the flood for people, housing, infrastructure and public facilities is approaching 40 billion rubles," the premier wrote on his Telegram channel.

The extent of the damage caused by the flood continues to be updated as more and more areas recover from the flooding. Assessment of the real condition of buildings, facilities and equipment in the flood zone continues, Alexeyenko added.

In the early morning hours of June 6, Ukrainian forces delivered a strike on the Kakhovka HPP. The shelling destroyed the hydraulic sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. It stood as high as 12 meters in Novaya Kakhovka, but the water is gradually subsiding now. A total of 35 communities and territories found themselves in the flood zone; residents of nearby population centers are being evacuated.

The collapse of the hydro plant’s dam has caused serious environmental damage, with farmland along the Dnieper River being washed away and a heightened risk that water levels in the North Crimean Canal will become unsustainably low.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack on the Kakhovka HPP as a deliberate act of sabotage by Ukraine. He added that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for the consequences.