Ukraine village devastated after dam breach

STORY: It's been a fortnight since a dam breach which caused massive flooding in southern Ukraine, and the scale of destruction is clearly visible in one village in the Mykolaiv region.

The collapse of the dam on June 6 unleashed floodwaters across southern Ukraine and Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region, destroying homes and cutting off supplies.

Locals here in Pavlo-Marianivka say that farmlands were completely flooded, with several thousand acres of barley, sunflower and other crops destroyed.

There's no gas or running water in the village.

Authorities have fixed the power supply, but people are afraid to turn it on because their houses remain wet.

Iryna Semenova lives in the village.

"The water was up to the ceiling. Everything here was underwater. The water pressed the window out. Our belongings and all of the furniture swam around, the walls are crumbling. My mother was living here, she slept in this room. Now, everything is ruined and destroyed. It has become impossible to live here."

The nearby Inhulets river's water levels have almost returned to normal, but locals say the damage has endured.

Volodymyr Savchuk tore branches from his fruit trees to demonstrate the state of his garden.

"It's not there anymore, just all gone. The leaves are getting all yellow. It drowned. In a week or two it'll be completely rotten."

Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the Soviet-era Kakhovka dam, under Russian control since early days of its invasion in 2022.

The Kremlin says Kyiv sabotaged the huge hydroelectric dam, to cut off a key source of water for Crimea and distract attention from a "faltering" counter-offensive against Russian forces.