we understand 16,000 residents on the banks of ukraine—controlled areas are in immediate, critical danger. shouts. ukraine and nate accused russia of committing the act. the un warned of grave and far—reaching consequences, which are being felt across ukraine and beyond. this is the story of what happened after kakhovka.

as a ukrainian journalist, i've been following russia's full—scale invasion from day one. when moscow took the area around the southern city of nova kakhovka, i realised it could become a flash point. the city is close to a key reservoir and europe's largest nuclear power station. live from london, this is bbc news. dozens of towns and villages are flooded in ukraine after a major dam is breached. let's go live now to kyiv, speak to bbc ukrainian�*s viktoriia zhuhan, who's there. for today, we understand from ukrainian authorities that about 16,000 residents on the banks of ukraine controlled areas are in immediate critical danger. our team has been investigating for many months... water supplies are of key importance in the hot and dry

south of ukraine, and russia previously targeted the waterways here, along with other civilian infrastructure. ..man—made flood into a weapon. yet, this breach caused much bigger disruption. i knew that soon this story would fade from the headlines. i wanted to keep following it to understand how this critical moment will affect ukraine and the rest of the world. we're heading to the southern region of ukraine. we want to see how the locals are coping weeks after the kakhovka dam disaster. well, you need to remember that people there have already been

through a lot, even before the massive flood. and as a journalist, i want to understand how wide scale and prolonged such consequences could be, but as a human, i'm honestly afraid what exactly i would see and how bad things really are. we set off from the ukrainian capital, kyiv, and ourfirst stop was the village of afanasiivka in the southern mykolaiv region of ukraine. it is 70km from the kakhovka dam. for svitlana and her husband, their life's work is in the small dairy farm.

these satellite images reveal what happened to svitlana's village. 0njune 9th, three days after the dam breach, flooding reaches maximum level, then starts to subside, but the damage is done.

the kakhovka dam is part of the kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in the south of ukraine. the facility has been under russian occupation since the full—scale invasion. the plant was built in the 19505 during the soviet era. the huge reservoir, known to locals as the kakhovka sea, provided drinking water, and as the author of a un report on the dam, monika tothova explained, water for crops. kakhovka dam was part of the dnipro cascade of hydroelectric plants and it was an important source of waterfor arid regions in the southern part of ukraine. so, it provided drinking water for the population, it provided a source of irrigation water for the summer, and allowed these steppes, which were previously dry, to be used for agricultural production.

ukraine blamed russia for the disaster, saying it was to sabotage the ukrainian offensive. russia denied responsibility and claimed it was ukraine's fault. three days after the incident, new evidence emerged. seismic readings that were detected around 400 miles away in romania indicate that this was a very, very large explosion.

but it is clear that that explosion, which they identify within a less than 20 mile radius of the dam at nova kakhovka, was a very, very large explosion. we're probably talking about tons of explosives. a us newspaper, the new york times, conducted its own investigation, citing engineers and other experts who believe the explosion happened inside the dam and the russian military were behind it. an international team of lawyers assisting ukraine in investigating the incident also believed there was a high probability that the dam was destroyed by explosives placed inside it.

the war had taken its toll on this family even before the flood.

svitlana and her husband explained that their local wells were contaminated after the massive exodus of water. for drinking water, they now rely on aid workers. afanasiivka, like many other villages and towns in ukraine—controlled flooded areas, received help, but locals are hoping for more than food.

we said goodbye to svitlana and travelled to the village of pavlo—marianivka, also in the mykolaiv region. last year, it was on the russian—ukrainian front line but has since been liberated. before the war, vadym successfully grew wheat, barley and sunflowers — ukraine's main exports.

the extent of the damage in vadym's home and his farm was recorded in this video, published on social media at the time of the disaster. the impact of the flooding on vadym's fields can be clearly seen in these

satellite images. what once were green fields were largely flooded by the 9th ofjune, and then, as the water subsided, it left behind badly damaged soil. vadym and his wife have farmed for most of their lives and have raised a large family. there have been highs and lows, but this feels very different.

after talking to vadym, i began to believe the local people here can recover from the flood damage but closer to the epicentre, the situation is much worse. some of the eastern bank of the dnipro river is under russian occupation. you can see it in red on this map. it's lower than the western bank and it suffered more flooding when the dam was breached in earlyjune. this is the town of 0leshky before and after the breach. the russian—installed mayor of nova kakhovka was quoted as saying the news of the dam breach was nonsense.

"the town is quiet and calm," he said. later, the russian—installed chief of the occupied part of kherson region said that nearly 6,000 people were evacuated to higher ground and would get help with relocation. we were not able to see the flood damage in the russian—occupied territories immediately after the dam breach and we cannot go there now, but we have been in touch with locals there. many of them told us, in reality, there was little or no help from the russian authorities. one person sent us this video. it was recorded soon after the dam breach. we have to hide these people's identities for their safety.

social media was key in organising the rescue effort. this is an example from a chat where residents in one flooded street were hoping for rescue. ukrainian officials said that even weeks after the disaster, some of the areas occupied by russia remained flooded and locals struggled to cope. at least 57 people are confirmed to have died. the local russian—installed authorities maintain that sufficient help was provided.

0n the ukraine—controlled side of the river, the quality of drinking water remains a major issue. these experts from a state agency have been conducting chemical and biological tests. months after the disaster, many people here still don't have water in their taps. without running water, locals in this area have had to rely on the authorities and volunteers to deliver drinking water to their towns and villages. we go on to the village of zelene pole, not far from kryvyi rih. it is some 180km north of the dam and water reservoir. this area was not flooded but the consequences here are also serious.

volodymyr melnyk owns a farm covering 3,000 hectares of land, growing wheat, barley and sunflowers. he also keeps pigs and sheep.

agreement which allowed ukraine to export some of its crops when russia partially lifted the blockade of ukraine's black sea ports. the un's report into fallout from the kakhovka dam breach stressed that without irrigation, this region faced a bleak future. when we look at the longer—term consequences, and that is the loss of the ability to irrigate, this will have more significant consequences in the future years, unless there is some sort of rebuilding process that takes place that will allow to renew the irrigation again. after the kakhovka dam breach, the water supply to volodymyr�*s farm stopped completely.

like svitlana and vadym, volodymyr is optimistic that solutions to this crisis can be found but, like so many, above all, he desperately hopes for an end to the war.

throughout this journey, i've witnessed the extraordinary scale of the damage and how it affected the people, farming, nature but what has struck me, too, is the resilience and determination i have witnessed. a few weeks after we first met, vadym got in touch to tell me about improvements he has made to his house and farm and he invited me back to see them. we haven't been here for a couple of weeks and now, we met vadym — very busy, very absorbed in errands and things to do. so, he promised to show us around and tell more about things he's managed to fix and what has been done so far.

while vadym is feeling upbeat, the impact of this breach can still be seen all around us.

two days after we left the village, vadym's son ivan was killed by an explosive. he was 20 years old. ukraine is now the most heavily mined country in the world following the russian occupation and heavy fighting. i spoke to vadym again by video link and asked how he will remember ivan.

one man's grief in the ongoing war.

and a big unknown is the full toll of the kakhovka disaster is still to reveal itself in the years to come. hello again. monday felt like another warm, summer's day — except, of course, it wasn't summer. no, it's 0ctober. it's meant to be a lot colder than this. these blue, sunny skies sent temperatures soaring, particularly across england and wales — the warmest spot, east malling in kent, 26 degrees celsius. now, average for these cities at this time of the year is 15 or 16 degrees, so ten degrees above average. even the temperatures we had on monday were in excess of what we'd see in a typical july day, so that's why it felt like summer. now, you can see the clear skies that we had across england and wales, but lurking out in the atlantic,

we've got more rain—bearing cloud around, and that's not good news for scotland, where we still have the bulk of the flood warnings in force across the nation. it's here where, of course, we saw torrential rain and flooding over the course of the weekend, and with more rain developing over the next few hours, that's not going to be exactly welcome rain that arrives. further southwards, across england and wales, we keep those clear spells over the next few hours. one or two mist patches and a few fog patches developing, but it's a mild start to the day on tuesday. i think the biggest concern, though, will continue to be this area of rain affecting scotland. in the grand scheme of things, 50 millimetres falling from this weather front over the mountains of western scotland isn't a huge amount, but given that we've got flood warnings already in force, the ground saturated after what fell over the weekend, then this rain could cause some further extra issues. it does trickle southwards, reaching northern ireland and the far north of england, as well, late tuesday afternoon. south of that, it's very warm again. 0nce we've lost those mist and fog patches, temperatures could hit 2a degrees in the warmest spots. now, tuesday night sees this band of rain pull away

from scotland, so hopefully things will begin to improve here, to a degree. but we've got some heavier rain setting in place further southwards across england and wales, and this rain band through wednesday slowly moves across wales, the midlands, into east anglia, perhaps not reaching the far south until after dark, where it will continue to be warm, with temperatures in the low 20s. but otherwise, those temperatures coming back down closer to average levels for october. now, heading into thursday, we've got some more rain moving overnight and into friday, affecting parts of england and wales. so rain, at times, probably best sums up the weather picture. that rain clears away into the weekend, with temperatures dropping back closer to the october averages.

live from washington, this is bbc news. more air strikes hit gaza, as israel orders a "complete seige" of the area. we have a correspondent on the ground in gaza, where supplies are running out, and the destruction is clear to see. and the us defense department lays out how it's helping israel and steps it hopes will contain the crisis. hello. i'm caitriona perry. you are very welcome. let's start with the very latest on the hamas attack

on israel and reports from russian media say that efforts are underway for the palestinian president mahmoud abbas to visit moscow. it is not yet confirmed when the trip will take place, the bbc has not confirmed the visit, and there's been no official confirmation from the kremlin. meanwhile, prime mister benjamin netanyahu says that israel will use enormous force against hamas. the israeli defense force reports that more than 1,200 targets were hit in the gaza strip between saturday and monday morning, with more strikes continuing through the day and night. israel's defence minister ordered a complete siege of gaza, which would cut off food, fuel, electricity, and water supplies. the bbc�*s diplomatic editor paul adams reports if israel wants to deal hamas a decisive blow, the ground operation will complicate matters for civilians and hostages in gaza. the white house says it has no plans to send

troops into israel, but pledged support for it as it fights