James FitzGerald
Live reporter

We'll leave today's coverage of the flooding in southern Ukraine there - but here are a few suggestions of where to head now.

• Read our full story right here
• Catch up here with the latest reporting from flooded Kherson by our Ukraine correspondent, James Waterhouse
• Meanwhile, here's everything we know so far about the major dam breach that caused the disaster

• Who benefits from all of this? Our security correspondent Frank Gardner has this essential analysis

Thanks for joining us for today's coverage - which was brought to you by Jasmine Andersson, Adam Durbin, Jack Burgess, Alex Therrien, Jamie Whitehead and me.

Image source, Reuters

Here's an overview of the day's events:

• Damage to the Kakhovka dam on Tuesday has now resulted in the flooding of 29 communities along the Dnipro river, Ukraine says
• Ukrainian officials said thousands of people had been evacuated from their homes, and that hundreds of thousands had no access to clean drinking water. They've warned that it could take years for affected farmland to recover
• The cause of the dam breach remains unclear, and both sides continue to blame each other. Russian President Vladimir Putin has portrayed it as a deliberate attack - a "barbaric act"
• Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a joint investigation, while British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the damage would constitute “the largest attack on civilian infrastructure during the war”, if it was found to be intentional
• Elsewhere - Ukraine has reported advances of up to 1.1km (0.7 miles) in "various sections of the Bakhmut direction". But another senior official told Reuters that any assaults were localised, and that a long-promised, full-scale counter-offensive had not yet begun. For its part, Russia said recent attacks near Bakhmut were "unsuccessful"
• Russia has also accused Ukraine of blowing up a section of a key ammonia pipeline - though Kyiv has previously accused its enemy of firing at the structure

Rescue workers have been battling throughout the day to help people and animals trapped by the floods.

Here are some of the latest pictures:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

As President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier, it's not only human life under threat from the flooding in southern Ukraine - but also the welfare of animals.

Some Kherson residents who fled their homes when the Kakhovka dam was breached have returned to find their beloved pets.

Watch this video to see one fortunate cat who was found stranded on a rooftop surrounded by floodwater.

Image source, .

Thousands of people have been evacuated from areas affected by flooding along the Dnipro river. Here's a closer look at some of the affected areas, courtesy of our colleagues in the BBC Verify and visual journalism teams.

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Ukraine National Guard/Reuters

Rescue workers in Kherson have spent the day plucking stranded people from their homes as flood waters continued to rise more than 40 miles (64km) downriver from the devastated Kakhovka dam.

Thousands of people are now without homes on both sides of the vastly swollen Dnipro river – in Ukrainian and Russian-held territory.

The flood waters may soon start to subside but the effects of this man-made disaster will last for a long time.

It’ll take at least five years to repair the damage, officials at Ukraine's Ministry of Agriculture say.

As the vast Kakhovka reservoir empties into the sea, vital irrigation systems will simply stop working.

Drought and costly crop failures are bound to follow, officials say.

Image source, Reuters

Here's a little more reaction to that major dam breach we've been telling you about on this page.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a financial agency of the United Nations, says it's "very concerned" about the social, economic and environmental impacts of the resultant flooding.

A spokesperson has said it is "too early to assess the full impact of the damage on the economy", but adds that the IMF is "following the situation closely".

And the International Rescue Committee (IRC) charity has shared its own concern for the thousands of people directly affected by the flooding. It says its top priority is retaining access to people who need assistance, and says it’s “gearing up” to respond in Kherson city, which is currently at the frontline of the evacuations.

Aerial images over flooded towns and villages along the Dnipro river show homes submerged by flood water.

A huge rescue operation is under way and thousands of people are being evacuated from their homes.

At the start of a brief visit to the United States, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason about the breaching of the dam.

He says British military and security services are still investigating - but says he thinks it would fit with a pattern of behaviour seen throughout the war if it turned out Russia was responsible.

“If intentional," Sunak adds, “this attack would represent the largest attack on civilian infrastructure during the war."

Sunak goes on to say the UK will continue to provide Ukraine with humanitarian support and will work to hold those responsible for the breaching of the dam to account.

Tomorrow, Sunak is due to meet US President Joe Biden discuss Ukraine's defences.

Was an explosion responsible?published at 16:54 British Summer Time 7 June 2023

16:54 BST 7 June 2023

As well as the two theories mentioned in our previous post, there's a third theory. Some people - including Ukraine’s state energy company - say an explosion could have been responsible.

Chief engineer Mykola Kalinin says the dam was “mined from the inside", adding that "the dam was designed and built to withstand a super-powerful impact from the outside. But not from the inside.”

While there is no clear evidence yet, “there are signs that point towards a deliberate act by Russia, including US intelligence”, says Wim Zwijnenburg, an expert who monitors the environmental impact of the war in Ukraine.

Moscow may have attacked the dam because it feared Ukrainian forces could use the nearby road to get troops across the river as part of a counter-offensive.

However, the dam’s destruction is hard to assess on satellite imagery alone, given much of the damage will be underwater.

“At this stage nobody knows except those on the ground, all else is speculation. Either way this would have been very unlikely to happen if not for the earlier damage,” Prof Mulligan added.

BBC Verify will continue to look for evidence on the cause of the collapse.

What caused the dam breach?published at 16:43 British Summer Time 7 June 2023

16:43 BST 7 June 2023

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of deliberately blowing up the dam, but it's not yet clear what caused the breach.

We’ve spoken to several experts about what could have happened.

According to some experts, previous fighting in August and November last year, external could have contributed.

“I think that structural failure resulting from the impact of earlier damage associated with the war remains a possibility,” says Mark Mulligan, professor of physical geography at University College London.

A second theory is that Russia, which controls the dam, deliberately allowed water levels to rise in the reservoir behind the dam – making a collapse more likely and more impactful.

According to analysis of satellite imagery, carried out by the US Foreign Agricultural Service, external, water levels rose sharply over the last few months.

“The very high level of water in the reservoir coupled with previous damage, leading to uncontrolled flows of water through the dam, could lead to catastrophic structural failure,” says Prof Mulligan.

There's also third theory, which we'll discuss in our next post.

The BBC's Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse was reporting live from the edge of the floodwater in Kherson just as a rescue boat arrived.

An emotional scene unfolded, as a woman rescued from the floods hugged a man waiting for her. An elderly man and his dog were also helped onto dry land.

Efforts are continuing to not only help people escape flooded homes - but also to rescue animals.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has tweeted , externalto say "thousands and thousands of animals are trapped", but that attempts are being made to save "every living creature".

The BBC has been speaking to volunteer Volodymyr Haponenko. He says five organisations have teamed up, including his own non-governmental organisation (NGO), called Living Hope.

Haponenko says the volunteers are taking pictures of each of the animals and posting them to a group chat. "If someone wants to have them, we'll bring that dog or cat to them," he adds.

Image source, Living Hope/Volodymyr Haponenko

Image source, Living Hope/Volodymyr Haponenko

Image source, Living Hope/Volodymyr Haponenko

Image source, Living Hope/Volodymyr Haponenko

Image source, .

The extent of flooding in Kherson can be appreciated by comparing satellite images of the Ukrainian city from two days ago with those taken today.

Image source, Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has portrayed the Kakhovka dam breach as a deliberate attack, labelling it a "barbaric act".

The Russian leader told his Turkish counterpart that the incident had led to a "large-scale environmental and humanitarian catastrophe", the Kremlin says.

The Ukrainian prime minister used similar words earlier, calling it "one of the most significant environmental catastrophes in Europe in recent decades".

Both Ukraine and Russian accuse each other of attacking the dam.

In pictures: Infrared imagery reveals extent of floodspublished at 15:25 British Summer Time 7 June 2023

15:25 BST 7 June 2023

Infrared satellite images showing Ukraine's Dnipro river before and after the Kakhovka dam breach have been gathered by BBC Verify and our colleagues in the visual journalism team.

The pictures show the scale of flooding caused by the dam's breach.

Image source, .

Damage to the Kakhovka dam has resulted in the flooding of 29 towns and villages along the Dnipro river, Ukraine's interior minister has said.

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Ihor Klymenko says 10 of these population centres were on the Ukrainian side of the river, with nine more along the Russian-occupied left bank.

Oleksandr Prokudin - head of the Ukrainian military administration in Kherson - has said Ukraine evacuated about 1,700 people from flooded areas, as of 13:00 local time (11:00 BST).

A dam breach in the Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka area of southern Ukraine has resulted in thousands of people being evacuated and rescued.

The areas affected stretch from Nova Kakhovka to near the bank of the Kosheva River. The BBC's James Waterhouse has been reporting on the scale of the impact.

Ukraine has reported a state of emergency and Russian media reports that several people are missing. Both countries have blamed each other for the breach.

Video edited by Gem O'Reilly.

James Waterhouse
Ukraine correspondent reporting from Kherson

Image source, Reuters

Kherson has gone through occupation, then liberation after heavy fighting. It’s shelled most days – and now this.

When we were here last November, there was an enduring optimism. That’s now changed. Morale is lower. People have had enough.

The Kakhovka dam has become a symbol of leverage between Kyiv and Moscow.

When Russia first annexed Crimea in 2014, Ukrainian authorities closed it down and cut the peninsula off from a major water supply.

Then last year, invading forces were accused by Ukraine of planting the dam with explosives, which the Kremlin denied.

Now, with its breaching and subsequent devastation, a full hand has been played by one of the sides.

• Read more from James here

Image source, Reuters

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken to his counterparts in both Ukraine and Russia, and called for a joint investigation to establish the cause of the breach of the Kakhovka dam. Tens of thousands of people have been left at risk of flooding as a result of the incident.

Turkey has attempted to play a mediator role during the Ukraine war.

Erdogan office says he told Russian President Vladimir Putin a comprehensive investigation was needed to establish how the dam was damaged. He suggested Turkey could establish an international commission to carry this out alongside the UN.

Erdogan earlier made the same proposal to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. Zelensky's statement about the call does not mention the suggestion of a commission, and says they discussed "the humanitarian and environmental consequences of the Russian act of terrorism".

Ukraine's leader says he gave Erdogan a list of "urgent needs to eliminate the disaster", adding that Turkey's "voice is important when it comes to the withdrawal of occupation troops from Ukrainian territory".

The Kremlin has yet to release its own statement about the call, but has previously denied being responsible for the breach of the dam.