Volodymyr Zelenskiy has lashed out at Moscow for what he said was a “vile” attack on his home city of Kryvyi Rih, parts of which were dramatically flooded after Russian cruise missiles blew up a nearby dam.
In a video address released early on Thursday, the Ukrainian president said “everything is being done to eliminate the consequences of yet another vile Russian act”, referring to the targeting of a hydraulics system in Kryvyi Rih, on the Inhulets River 95 miles (150km) south-west of Dnipro.
City authorities fought to contain the damage to its water system after eight cruise missiles hit a water pumping station there in what Zelenskiy has called an attempt to flood the city, the largest in central Ukraine, with an estimated prewar population of 650,000.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, described the attack as “a war crime and an act of terror”.
“Beaten by [the] Ukrainian army on the battlefield, Russian cowards are now at war with our critical infrastructure and civilians. Russia is a terrorist state and must be recognised as such,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Ukrainian legislator Inna Sovsun tweeted: “The water pumping station was destroyed. The river broke through the dam and overflowed its banks. Residential buildings are just a few metres away from the river.”
Later on Thursday, Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, said in a post on Telegram that 112 homes had been flooded but that work to repair the dam was under way and that “flooding was receding”.
However, a separate Russian missile hit another part of the city later in the day, suggesting a continued assault. The missile struck an industrial site in the city, an official said.
The strikes on the dam had caused “extensive flooding” in areas of the city, after the river rose an estimated 2.5 metres, the Institute for the Study of War said. The Russian attack was probably intended to damage Ukrainian pontoon bridges further downstream as part of efforts to disrupt the Kherson counteroffensive, it said.
Video posted online showed elevated water levels on the Inhulets and flooded city streets, amid calls for the evacuation of residents.
Switching to speak in Russian, Zelenskiy said: “Your missile attacks today, Russian missiles targeting Kryvyi Rih, the dam of the Karachunivske reservoir, the objects that have no military value at all, in fact hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians, is another reason why Russia will lose … you are weaklings waging a war against civilians; scoundrels who, having fled the battlefield, are trying to do harm from somewhere far away.”
Zelenskiy’s address was released after news that the car in which the president was travelling had been involved in a crash in Kyiv. He was not seriously hurt, a spokesperson, Serhii Nykyforov, said.
Nykyforov did not say when the crash occurred, but said the car Zelenskiy was in collided with a private vehicle in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday night.
“The president was examined by a doctor, no serious injuries were found,” he said in a Facebook post, adding that the accident would be investigated. He did not specify what injuries Zelenskiy might have sustained, if any.
Medics accompanying Zelenskiy gave the driver of the private car emergency aid and put him in an ambulance, Nykyforov said.
Zelenskiy was returning to Kyiv on Wednesday from the Kharkiv region, where he had visited troops in the recaptured city of Izium.
In his video address on Thursday, Zelenskiy spoke of the destruction found by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region, saying evidence of torture and other abuses strengthened allegations of the genocide of Ukrainians, after similar abuses in Bucha, as well as the Chernihiv and Sumy regions.
He said almost the entire region of Kharkiv had now been liberated by “an unprecedented movement of our warriors”.
“Ukrainians once again managed to do what many considered impossible,” he said, adding that nearly 400 settlements had been retaken. “The 150,000 Ukrainians who remained in this territory feel again now what an ordinary, safe, normal life is like.”
Agencies contributed to this report
