Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy visits Kherson as Red Cross warns dam floodwater uprooting and dispersing mines

Flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has forced Russian troops to retreat by distances of five to 15km (three to nine miles) in the Kherson region, a military spokesperson said.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, told Ukrainian television the redeployment had “practically halved” Russian shelling in the region, Reuters reports.

Russia has not yet commented.

The Russian-installed governor of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said on Thursday that Ukraine had shelled an evacuation point for civilians affected by the Kakhovka dam breach in the town of Hola Prystan, killing two people, Reuters reports.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said in a statement posted on Telegram that two settlements in the region had been attacked by drones.

Belgorod, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, has come under repeated attack from Kyiv’s forces in recent weeks.

These claims have not been independently verified.

More information to come …

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the staff at one of Kherson’s hospitals for their work in helping people affected by the explosion at the Nova Kakhovka dam during a visit.

In a tweet, he described medics as “heroic people” and wished patients good health.

The Kremlin on Thursday accused Ukraine of shelling Russian rescue workers in the area flooded after the huge Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s Kherson region was breached earlier this week.

It did not provide any immediate evidence for its assertion.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, did not currently have any plans to visit the disaster area.

Here are some more images that have been sent to us over the news wires, showing the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visiting people at a hospital that is being used as one of Kherson’s evacuation points.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Kherson region that has been impacted by flooding after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. In a post to Telegram, Ukraine’s president said the main issues discussed during the visit were “the operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential flood zones, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organisation of life support for the flooded areas”.

• In an address on Wednesday evening, Zelenskiy said it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied parts of Kherson due to the flooding, urging a “clear and rapid reaction from the world” to support victims. He also severely criticised the UN and the Red Cross who he said were not helping the relief effort. “Our military and special services are rescuing people as much as it is possible, despite the shelling. But large-scale efforts are needed,” he said. “We need international organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, to immediately join the rescue operation and help people in the occupied part of Kherson region.

• About 230 square miles (600 sq km) of the Kherson region was under water on Thursday, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Prokudin said 68% of the flooded territory was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River. The average level of flooding in the Kherson region on Thursday morning was 5.61m (18.41ft), he said. He said almost 2,000 people had left flooded territory as of Thursday morning.

• Five people have died due to flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station according to the Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Nova Kakhovka, the nearest settlement to the dam. Russian media has claimed that over 14,000 houses were flooded, and almost 4,300 people were evacuated in occupied Kherson, but the claims have not been independently verified.

• Volodymyr Litvinov, the head of the Beryslav district administration in Kherson region, reported that there was a risk of flooding further inland, due to rising level of the Inhulets River, which feeds into the Dnipro.

• The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that it will strengthen its presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant amid concerns over water supplies for cooling the plant’s reactors.

• Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass reported that “missiles flew over Luhansk, several explosions were heard in the city”.

• The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has issued a new statement about the situation with shelters in Ukraine’s capital, saying that the city’s council will warn the owners of private premises with shelters that if they are not properly maintained, or people are not admitted during an air raid, these premises may be seized from them. It follows the deaths last week of three people who were unable to get into a locked shelter and were then hit by falling debris from a Russian missile attack.

• South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had a telephone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during which he briefed Putin on the forthcoming African leaders’ peace mission to Russia and Ukraine, the South African presidency said.

• The US president, Joe Biden, is to welcome the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for wide-ranging talks on Thursday as the British leader makes his first White House visit as premier. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the 15-Russian invasion of Ukraine would be “top of mind”.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Mabel Banfield-Nwachi will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.

Russian Industry and Trade minister Denis Manturov said on Thursday that Moscow has no access to the damaged part of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline, and does not expect to be granted it, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia has made the restart of the pipeline, which before the war carried ammonia from Russia to Ukraine for export, central to future renewal of a deal allowing Ukraine to export its grain safely from its Black Sea ports.

Reuters reports that both Russia and Ukraine this week claimed there was damage to a section of the pipeline that runs through the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The two sides have blamed each other.

The water level in the North Crimean Canal, which carries water from the Kakhovka reservoir behind the breached Kakhovka dam to the Crimean peninsula, remains stable, Reuters reports the Russian-imposed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Thursday.

Crimea relies heavily on water transported by the canal. After Moscow seized the peninsula in 2014, claiming to have annexed it, Kyiv blocked the canal.

Mines uprooted and dispersed by floodwaters surging downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam across swathes of southern Ukraine could pose a grave danger to civilians for decades to come, the Red Cross said.

“In the past we knew where the hazards were. Now we don’t know. All we know is that they are somewhere downstream,” said Erik Tollefsen, head of the Weapon Contamination Unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“It is with a certain horror that we look at the news coming out,” Reuters reports Tollefsen said in an audio clip, adding that the second world war mines found underwater in Denmark in 2015 were still active.

Besides anti-personnel mines, both sides have used vast amounts of artillery shells and anti-tank mines. The exact number of mines in Ukraine is unclear, said Tollefsen. “We just know the numbers are massive,” said Tollefsen.

Tollefsen said the issue with mines was not necessarily the nominal number of mines but where they were laid – especially in a heavily agricultural country such as Ukraine.

Here are some of the first images to be released of Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kherson. They show Ukraine’s president touring the flooded area and speaking to Ihor Klymenko, the head of the national police.

Volodymyr Litvinov, the head of the Beryslav district administration in Kherson region, reports that there is a risk of flooding further inland, due to rising level of the Inhulets River. He has posted to Telegram:

In connection with the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP dam, there was an uncontrolled flow of water from the Dnipro River downstream.

There is a rise in the water level in the Inhulets River, which flows into the Dnipro.

Listing several villages near Kalynivske, which is about 22 miles (35km) from the Dnipro, Litvinov warned: “Due to the flooding of the bridge, it is not possible to travel to the village of Zapovit. The water is getting close to the homes of residents.”

Here are some images that have been sent to us over the news wires from occupied Ukraine, showing the impact of flooding in Nova Kakhovka, where the local Russian-imposed official has said five people have died.