A vast Soviet-era dam in southern Ukraine was blown on Tuesday, unleashing a flood of water across the war zone, according to both Ukrainian and Russian forces, APA reports citing Reuters..

Unverified videos on social media showed a series of intense explosions around the Kakhovka dam. Other videos showed water surging through the remains of the dam with bystanders expressing their shock.

The dam, 30 metres (yards) tall and 3.2 km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.

It holds an 18 km3 reservoir which also supplies water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday on its Facebook page.

Source: Azeri-Press News Agency