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Putin orders the creation of an emergency commission for the collapse of the Nova Kajovka dam

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered this Friday to create a government commission to combat the aftermath of the floods caused by the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, located in the Ukrainian region of Kherson.

The commission should be created this very Friday, by the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, according to the Kremlin in a statement. The note underlines that the destruction of the dam was due to enemy "sabotage", although kyiv accuses Moscow of causing "ecocide".

The explosion of the dam, controlled by Russian troops, flooded some 80 towns -more than 600 square kilometers-, two thirds of them in the part of Kherson occupied by Moscow on the left bank of the Dnieper river.

Independent media have criticized the management of the crisis by the central government, which has been accused, as in the case of the attacks against the border region of Belgorod, of abandoning the victims to their fate.

Russian authorities raised the number of people killed in the floods to eight on Friday, a figure that volunteers put at several dozen. The latest victim is an 84-year-old woman, whose body was found after lowering the water level, while two of the deceased were victims of a Ukrainian bombardment.

The residents of the areas occupied by the Russian troops have also informed the press about numerous disappearances under the waters released by the hydroelectric power station. In turn, they criticized the team sent by the Russian Government for obstructing their work by preventing them from accessing the disaster area.

For its part, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported that five people died in the north of Kherson and another thirteen are missing.

More bodies could appear in the next few hours, as the water level in the Nova Kajovka reservoir has dropped another meter in the last 24 hours to 11.74 meters, and continues to drop, according to the Ukrainian hydroelectric company. Ukrhidroenergo. (Eph)