Ukraine Dam Disaster: Uprooted landmines may pose grave danger

Landmines 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.

The vast Soviet-era Kakhovka dam, under Russian control, was breached in the early hours of Tuesday, unleashing floodwaters across a swathe of the warzone and endangering the lives and welfare of tens of thousands of people.

Ukraine blamed Russia for blowing it up. Russia said Ukraine sabotaged the dam at the behest of the West to constrict water supplies to Crimea and to distract from a faltering offensive. Some Russian-backed officials said the dam may have collapsed.

About 600 square kilometres, or 230 square miles, of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine was under water following the destruction of the dam, the regional governor said.

The waters have also washed over countless land mines sown during the 15-month war and nobody now knows where they are: they could still be in the minefields or could be stuck in the river mud or in fields, gardens and roads across a vast area.

"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 (ICRC).

"It is with a certain horror that we look at the news coming out," said Tollefsen in an audio clip, adding that World War Two 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.

Russian-installed authorities who control part of Kherson region said five people have died in the floods and also warned residents to be vigilant over the mines being washed downstream by the floodwaters.

Moscow and Kyiv also accused each other of shelling the area as rescue workers in rubber dinghies tried to save hundreds of people and animals from the still rising flood waters.

Ukraine said the floods would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, swamp tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land and turn at least 500,000 hectares deprived of irrigation into "deserts".

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has appealed for a "clear and rapid" international effort to help flood victims, held emergency talks with officials in Kherson.

Meanwhile, Russia yesterday accused Ukraine at the UN's top court of destroying the dam with artillery strikes, and alleged that Kyiv was led by neo-Nazis -- a claim Moscow has used to try to justify its invasion, reports AFP.

Moscow's comments to judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) came as it denied wider allegations by Ukraine that Russia had breached terrorism laws by backing separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014.