Floodwaters are receding in areas around the Dnipro River following last week's collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, according to Ukrainian officials.
Water on the river's Ukrainian-controlled west bank has fallen by 64 centimeters (25 inches), said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson region military administration.
But nearly 50 settlements remained inundated, he said — 32 on the Ukrainian side, and 14 on the Russian-occupied east bank.
Prokudin said more than 3,700 houses are flooded on the Ukrainian side, and evacuations continue despite Russian artillery fire.
More than 2,700 people, including 228 children, have been recued from the west bank of the river, Prokudin said.
He added that Ukrainian forces also rescued more than 100 people stranded on the Russian-held east bank, without giving further details.
Prokudin claimed that Russian forces continued attacking throughout the rescue and evacuation operations, killing three and wounding 12.
Falling waters: Ukraine's main hydropower company, Ukrhydroenergo, gave similar estimates for how much the water had fallen in Kherson — but said it's currently not possible to measure water levels upstream.
"The evacuation of people from the flooded areas continues and the issue of supplying the population with drinking and industrial water is being resolved," the company said.
It added that design work had begun on an emergency dam to replace the one destroyed last week once the area is "de-occupied."
On the Russian-occupied east bank, Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Moscow-appointed Kherson region administration, said 7,100 people had been evacuated from flooded areas.
He said water levels had receded between 1.5 and 5 meters (about 5 to 16 feet) in settlements along the river, and Russian forces were involved in the clean-up operation.
