GENICHESK, June 16./TASS/. Around 295 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas of the Kherson Region in the past 24 hours, and as many as 7,800 local residents have been evacuated since the start of the rescue operation following the Kakhovka hydropower plant dam breach, the region’s Acting Governor, Vladimir Saldo, said on Friday.

"Over the past day, 295 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas of the Novaya Kakhovka city district and the Alyoshki and Golaya Pristan municipal districts in the Kherson Region," the official wrote on his Telegram channel.

"As many as 7,800 people have been evacuated since the start of the rescue operation, including 558 children and 262 citizens with disabilities," he blogged. According to Saldo, more than 1,900 people are currently staying at temporary accommodation centers.

He also noted that the number of hospitalizations in the Kherson Region after the dam blast has increased to 95. As many as 84 hospitalizations were reported on June 13. "Ninety-five people were hospitalized in medical institutions," the acting governor said, adding that 957 of the people evacuated from flooded areas had received vaccinations.

The water level in the Novaya Kakhovka municipality remains at five meters, while in the Alyoshki and Golaya Pristan municipal districts, it has dropped to 0 and 0.4 meters accordingly. "A total of 3,000 residential houses are no longer under water," Saldo said.

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.

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.