A satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on Monday, J The dam was “blasted from within”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of destroying the dam, which held together Ukraine’s largest water reservoir and provided water to millions. “Our guys move around on boats, but they are being bombed, mines pop up, all the mined areas are spontaneously being blown up,” Pshenichnaya said. Some low-lying parts of her hometown are also underwater, but evacuation efforts are thwarted by Russian bombing from the left bank – as landmines planted by retreating Russians months ago float up.

“There’s nothing but trouble, everything is flooded, villages and forests,” Pshenichnaya told Al Jazeera from the safety of Odesa, a Black Sea port 200km (124 miles) west of Kherson, where she relocated after months in Russian captivity.

Russian forces withdrew from the city in November, but still control the river’s lower, left bank, which has been flooded after the giant Nova Kakhovka dam collapsed early on Tuesday. It stands high above the right bank of the Dnipro river in the administrative centre of the eponymous southern Ukrainian region that was occupied by Russia days after the war began more than a year ago. Kyiv, Ukraine – Lilya Pshenichnaya’s old apartment building in Kherson has not been flooded.

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