Kiev, June 17 (IANS) Nearly 200 settlements have been affected by the June 6 breaching of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal revealed.With a combined population of 1.4 million, the affected communities are located in the southern Kherson and Mykolayiv regions and the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Xinhua news agency quoted Shmyhal as saying during his visit to Kherson.Currently, 39 settlements remain in the disaster area, while more than 3,700 people have been rescued from the flooded areas, Shmyhal said.The government has allocated about $42 million to provide compensation for the damaged and destroyed property and to pay one-time aid to flood victims, he added.The breaching of the dam led to mass evacuations as water levels downstream rapidly increased.Massive flooding also killed nine people in the town of Oleshky.Kiev and Moscow have traded accusations over the dam's destruction, without providing concrete proof that the other is culpable.It is not yet clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure.
--IANS ksk/
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