MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. More than 23,000 homes have been affected by flooding in the Kherson Region following the recent explosion at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov told Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"As a result of the collapse of the dam at the Kakhovka HPP, 23 population centers have been flooded in the Novaya Kakhovka municipal district, the Alyoshki and Golaya Pristan municipal districts in the Kherson Region. The flooding has affected more than 23,000 homes, 152 socially important administrative and infrastructure facilities," he said.

Also, according to Kurenkov, floodwaters overwhelmed the Nizhnedneprovsky National Park and 12 cemeteries.

"By the decision of the government’s commission on emergencies, the situation has been designated a national emergency, so a national level of response has been ordered," the minister said.

The minister also said that a group of forces has been dispatched to the disaster area, including rescue workers from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, servicemen of the Defense Ministry, specialists from federal and Kherson Region agencies.

"To date, the task force of the unified government system of disaster prevention and relief numbers more than 1,500 people and 350 units of equipment, including 91 specialists in the cleanup of chemical and biological contamination, who are carrying out decontamination work at socially significant facilities, apartment buildings and cemeteries," he said.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces inflicted a missile strike on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the morning of June 6, destroying its valves and prompting an uncontrolled discharge of water. The destruction of the dam has caused serious damage to the environment, washed away farmlands along the Dnieper and raised the risk of the North Crimean Canal drying up. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a terrorist case into the incident, under Russian Criminal Code Article 205.