KYIV - Flooding from the Kakhovka dam breach extends over 600 sq km on the Ukrainian-held right bank of the Dnipro River and the Russian-held left bank, the region’s governor said on Thursday.

“Six hundred sq km of the Kherson region are under water, of which 32 per cent is the right bank and 68 per cent is the left bank,” Mr Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Kherson region, said on social media.

“The average level of flooding is 5.61m,” he said, adding that “despite the danger and heavy Russian shelling, the evacuation from the flooded area continues”.

Mr Prokudin said the situation in Russian-held areas was “extremely difficult”.

The state emergency service of Ukraine said 1,995 people had been evacuated from flooded areas, including 103 children. Many more have fled of their own accord.

The state emergency service said that on the Ukrainian-held side of the river “a total of 20 settlements and 2,629 houses” had been flooded.

The floods have submerged parts of the regional capital, Kherson.

Russian state-owned news agency TASS meanwhile said around 14,000 houses have been flooded.

Citing the country’s security services, it added that around 4,300 people have been evacuated.

The Kakhovka dam, which sits on the Dnipro river on the front line between Ukrainian and Russian-controlled territory, burst on Tuesday. AFP, REUTERS