dozens of towns and villages are flooded in ukraine after a major dam is breached. on the 6th ofjune 2023, the kakhovka dam, a critical infrastructure in the south of ukraine, was destroyed by an explosion. a huge reservoir of water on the dnipro river was unleashed downstream, with devastating consequences. we understand 16,000 residents on the banks of ukraine—controlled areas are in immediate, critical danger. shouts. ukraine and nato 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.

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.

the deal volodymyr is talking about is an international 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 — the full toll of the kakhovka disaster — is still to reveal itself in the years to come. hello, there. it's been a fine start to this week, but things are set to turn more unsettled, very autumnal, and even quite stormy, as we see strong winds, gales and heavy rain spreading northwards across the uk.

so some of this rain and strong wind likely to cause some disruption towards the end of the week. now, it's storm babet, which the met office have named, will be pushing northwards during wednesday, wednesday night, across the uk, then parking itself across the north of the uk for thursday and friday. so rainfall totals really will be mounting up, and i can show you this, in fact, on the rainfall accumulation anomaly — you can see all areas seeing a lot of rainfall, but it's eastern scotland, parts of northeast england that bear the brunt. some of the heaviest of the rainfall sits here, where we have some concerns with the risk of some localised flooding, but because of the recent flooding across scotland, the ground is saturated, the met office have issued an amber warning for this east—northeast corner, it could see up to 150m maybe 200mm of rain by the time the week's out. that could cause some disruption. wednesday starts off fine for many — central, northern, eastern areas, plenty of sunshine. it will be windy, mind you. rain starts to pepper northern ireland, and then southern britain, first signs of storm babet pushing in here later on wednesday.

some of this rain could be quite heavy and thundery, but strong and gusty winds for all areas, even though it will be quite mild, 1a to 16 degrees — might not feel like that because of the strength of the wind. storm babet continues to move northwards across the uk during wednesday night, parks itself across northern england, northern ireland, southern scotland. that starts thursday morning, some showers pushing in to southern areas later on. it will be a mild night to come. this is the pressure chart, then for thursday — it looks like the weather front will be hanging around across northern and eastern scotland. rainfall totals really mounting here, strong, gale—force winds, particularly for the northern isles and north sea coast here. further south, it'll be a mixture of variable cloud, some showery bursts of rain, some of which could be heavy and thundery, but mild, despite the wind and the rain — 15 to 18 celsius. similar story as we head into friday — it looks like the northern half of the country will see the heaviest of the rain. again, northeast england could bear the brunt of the heavy rain on friday. elsewhere, it's clear spells,

but also a mixture of showers, some of which could be heavy and thundery. again, mild in the south, cooler in the north. see you later.

live from washington, this is bbc news. a place of healing turns into a scene of carnage, as hundreds are feared killed in an explosion at a gaza city hospital. the blast has already sent shockwaves through the region, with palestinians protesting

in the west bank. this comes asjoe biden heads to the region to show support for israel, even asjordan cancels a planned summit involving the us president. hello. i'm sumi somaskanda. it is good to have you with us. we start with the latest developments in the israel—hamas war. jordan has cancelled a planned summit with palestinian and arab leaders, even as presidentjoe biden heads to the region to show his support for israel. he had been scheduled to attend the gathering in amman, before tuesday's attack on a hospital in gaza city. that blast has killed hundreds of palestinians, according to health officials in gaza. hamas has blamed the devastation on an israeli air strike. israel says the blast was caused by rockets misfired by another group, palestinian islamichhad. both sides deny responsibility. let's get more on tuesday's hospital attack.

here's our international editorjeremy bowen.