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Mayor of flooded Novaya Kakhovka town says situation should be stable in 24 hours

Now there are 14 settlements in the flood zone, in total about 80 may be inundated

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Novaya Kakhovka Mayor Vladimir Leontyev said on Tuesday he believed that the situation regarding the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant’s rupture, which caused floods, would be stabilized in a day.

Leontyev stressed that the situation in Novaya Kakhovka remained tense and it becomes more complicated because the Ukrainian military continued shelling the town.

"We hope that the situation will get stabilized within a day, all emergency services are currently in operation to minimize the outcome of the caused damages," Leontyev said.

The mayor announced earlier in the day that the town was flooded with water after the reported attack on the dam. "The town is flooded," he said on air of Russia’s Rossiya-1 television channel.

The Ukrainian military shelled the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant overnight to June 6 presumably from an Olkha multiple launch rocket system, destroying the hydraulic valves at its dam and triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. Water levels have already exceeded 10 meters in Novaya Kakhovka.

Now there are 14 settlements in the flood zone, in total about 80 may be inundated. Residents of nearby settlements are being evacuated, while authorities say that large-scale evacuations will not be required.

The destruction of the hydroelectric power station caused serious damage to the environment, farmlands along the Dnieper were washed away, and there is a risk of the North Crimean Canal drying up.