What we do and don't know about Kakhovka dam breach

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STORY: Why was the Nova Kakhovka dam breached?

The destruction of a major dam in southern Ukraine has unleashed floodwaters across the war zone,

forcing thousands of people from their homes, threatening vast swathes of agricultural land,

and raising fears about the safety of Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

Both Ukraine and Russia have accused the other of destroying the dam.

Let's take a closer look at what we know so far.

The Soviet-era dam is located on the Dnipro river in the Kherson region,

and is part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.

The reservoir holds 4.3 cubic miles of water -

a volume roughly equal to the Great Salt Lake in the U.S. state of Utah.

It supplies water to the Crimean peninsula,

which Russia annexed in 2014,

and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, also under Russian control.

Ukraine, which commented first, said Russia deliberately blew up the dam.

"The whole world will know about this Russian war crime, the crime of ecocide."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station from inside the facility.

A Ukrainian military spokesperson said Russia's aim was to prevent Ukrainian troops crossing the Dnipro River to attack Russian occupying forces.

Russia has hit back, saying Ukraine sabotaged the dam to cut off water supplies to Crimea,

and to distract attention from its faltering counteroffensive.

Here's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigui:

"Aiming to prevent the offensive operations by the Russian army on this section of the frontline, the Kyiv regime committed an act of sabotage or rather terrorist act."

With water levels surging higher, many thousands of people are likely to be affected.

Evacuations of civilians began on both sides of the front line.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the dam's destruction was another example of the human cost of war.

"At least 16,000 people have already lost their homes -- with safe and clean drinking water supplies at risk for many thousands more."

"We are seeing the effects in the city of Kherson, the town of Nova Kakhovka and 80 other towns and villages along the Dnipro river, massive flooding, large-scale evacuation, environmental devastation, destruction of newly planted crops, and added threats to the highly threatened Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant -- Europe’s largest nuclear facility."