MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Water in the Odessa Region contains the highest number of microbes, parasites and viruses of any area affected by the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant dam collapse, Ukraine’s health ministry said on Monday.

"Currently, the most significant deviations from safety standards according to virologic, microbiological and parasitological studies have been registered in the Odessa Region," it wrote on its Facebook page (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist).

Nevertheless, according to the ministry, no cholera cases have been confirmed in areas that were flooded after the dam burst. Water samples are taken daily along the Dnieper River and the Black Sea coast.

Odessa’s authorities said earlier that pathogens of rotavirus, salmonellae and cholera vibrio were found in seawater near the coast. A ban on fishing, selling and eating fish and seafood has been imposed in the city. However, on June 25, the first case of someone getting sick from eating fish was reported in the region.

On the morning of June 6, the Ukrainian military launched a missile attack on the Kakhovka HPP, which resulted in the destruction of gate sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. Water levels in Novaya Kakhovka rose to 12 meters. The destruction of the hydropower plant has caused serious environmental damage with farmlands along the Dnieper River being washed away. Additionally, there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal may run low and become too shallow.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the strike on the Kakhovka dam as an act of deliberate sabotage by Ukrainian forces, adding that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for its consequences.