Erdogan calls for joint international investigation of Ukraine dam breach

Turkish President speaks to counterparts in Russia, Ukraine and South Africa about rising floodwaters in Kherson

Boats evacuate residents from a flooded area in Kherson, Ukraine. AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for an international expert commission to investigate the explosion that destroyed Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region of Ukraine.

He spoke to the presidents of Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday about the incident that has affected hundreds of thousands of people.

Mr Erdogan had this week proposed that Turkey and the UN could be involved in the investigation to provide a detailed report on the incident.

During a phone call with the Turkish leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged authorities in Kyiv were behind "a barbaric act which has led to a large-scale environmental and humanitarian catastrophe", the Kremlin said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Mr Erdogan the consequences of the attack that Kyiv blames on "Russian terrorism" were devastating.

Rishi Sunak, the UK Prime Minister, said it was too early to declare Russia responsible for the attack. "We can't say that definitively yet," he said. "But if true, if it does prove to be intentional, it will represent a new low."

Kyiv has estimated about 42,000 people living near the dam and the Dnipro river are at risk from rising floodwater that it expects to peak this week. It said the dam's collapse had left hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water.

Ukraine has also warned tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land in southern Ukraine could be ruined.

Mr Putin also spoke to Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, one of the countries most concerned with the potential impact on food prices.

Russian-backed separatists said the flooding would affect the course of war just as Ukraine appeared to be launching for a counter-offensive against Russian troops. Amid the disaster response, artillery boomed as people rushed to leave the danger zone.

Addressing who might be to blame, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Russia had "a greater and clearer interest in flooding the lower Dnipro despite the damage to their own prepared defensive positions”.