Five people are dead and about 600 square kilometres of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine is under water following the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, officials say.

The Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka announced the fatalities on Thursday, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported.

Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said 68 per cent of the flooded territory was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River.

The “average level of flooding” in the Kherson region on Thursday morning was 5.61 metres, he said.

“We’re already working. We will help everyone that has ended up in trouble,” Mr Prokudin said in a video statement of the flooding caused by the collapse of the dam, which is about 60 kilometres upstream from Kherson.

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Ukraine blame each other for the destruction of the Russian-occupied dam on Tuesday.

“Despite the immense danger and constant Russian shelling, evacuation from zones of flooding is continuing,” Mr Prokudin said.

He said almost 2000 people had left flooded territory as of Thursday morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address late on Wednesday that it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied areas due to the flooding.

The World Bank said it would support Ukraine by conducting a rapid assessment of damage and needs after the destruction of the dam.

Anna Bjerde, the World Bank’s managing director for operations, said on Twitter the destruction of the Novo Kakhovka dam had “many very serious consequences for essential service delivery and the broader environment”.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, also writing on Twitter, said he spoke with Ms Bjerde about the impact of the dam’s collapse, and she assured him the World Bank would carry out a rapid assessment of the damage and needs.

-Reuters