Russia has bombed residential buildings in Kherson as people were evacuating their flooded homes, with shelling leaving three injured and at least one person dead, according to Ukraine.

The cruel bombardment by Vladimir Putin’s forces comes as the region deals with massive flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Russian-held territory, which Kyiv labelled a ‘terrorist act’ by Moscow.

Evacuation points – including the one visited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day – were reportedly targeted by shelling, with civilians, journalists and rescuers taking shelter and operations being put on hold.

‘The shelling began precisely during the evacuation of citizens whose homes were flooded,’ Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

It reiterated accusations that Russia has abandoned people in the territory it has occupied in the Kherson region, adding that it ‘continues to prevent Ukraine from saving the most valuable – human lives.’

Videos show terrified residents running for their lives as their homes, surrounded by floodwater, appear to come under attack. Further footage showed smoke rising from a water-logged town near what appears to be an evacuation boat.

Burning buildings were also filmed, with reports that fire and rescue crews were unable to reach bombed sites due to the high floodwaters. 

Rescuers and civilians are seen running in panic as they could hear the sound of distant fire, in a video shared by Sky’s Alex Crawford.

‘There are some civilians wounded and dead as a result of Russian shelling in the centre of Kherson, the number is being clarified,’ military spokesman Sergiy Sergeyev said earlier this afternoon. At least three people were wounded, police said. 

Moscow has itself blasted Kyiv for what it said were attacks on rescue workers in Russian-held territory on the east bank of the Dnieper river.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘The difficulty is that in a lot of places they [the rescuers] are forced to work in conditions of ongoing shelling from Ukraine, and this complicates their work.’

Kyiv also accused Moscow of hampering the evacuation effort with shelling yesterday.

‘Evacuation continues. Under fire!’ President Zelensky said. ‘Russian artillery continues to fire, no matter what. Savages.

‘Our military and special services are rescuing people as much as it is possible, despite the shelling.’

Routes out of the flooded city were bombed today shortly after Ukrainian President Zelensky was seen at an evacuation point in the city earlier today.

The devastation caused by the dam breach was reflected in the sombre expression of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as he visited the region today, where thousands continue to flee their homes.

The battle-hardened leader appeared uncharacteristically emotional as he took in the scale of the flooding – described as Europe’s worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl.

Close to 20,000 people have been rescued from the resulting deluge, Kyiv confirmed last night. Another 40,000 face evacuation as streets across dozens of settlements have turned into rivers.

As Ukrainians continue to be evacuated from affected areas, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka said on Russian state TV that five people have died.

Moscow-backed mayor Vladimir Leontyev said those who had died were among seven local residents declared missing following the dam collapse. The two others were found, he said, and efforts were being made to evacuate them.

Chilling aerial photographs show houses submerged by the high water, with people’s homes, livelihoods, belongings and pets now abandoned.

Rescuers were using boats and amphibious vehicles to pluck people from flooded areas.

President Zelensky thanked the brave rescuers and volunteers and said ‘our task is to protect lives and help people as much as possible’. 

One woman, Tetiana Omelchenko, 65, said she had waited two days for evacuation from her block of flats and had to climb through a broken window to reach a rescue boat.

‘In my building, the water has reached the third floor and there are still people in there,’ she said.

An employee at Kherson’s meteorological agency, Lora Musiyan, waded into the water to mark the current level: 5.33 metres above the norm.

‘That’s the height of two storeys – you can only survive this on a roof,’ she said.

The Russian state-owned news agency Tass, citing emergency services in the occupied region, said that up to 14,000 homes have been flooded and nearly 4,300 people evacuated. 

Twenty-three people were seen by doctors of which 21 were hospitalised, medical services reported. 

President Zelensky also met with advisors to consider how to move forward following the widespread flooding.

He wrote on Telegram: ‘Many important issues were discussed. The operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential flood zones, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organization of life support for the flooded areas,’ he said on his Telegram channel.

‘Also, the prospects for restoring the region’s ecosystem and the operational military situation in the man-made disaster area.’

The destruction of the dam on the Dnieper River, which separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, is set to displace tens of thousands of people.

Writing on twitter, the deputy foreign minister Andrij Melnyk compared the flood to the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant that sent a radioactive cloud across Europe. 

‘The worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster. Only this time Moscow deliberately used this weapon of mass destruction against the Ukrainians. Who else wants to negotiate with Putin?’ he wrote. 

The cause of the blasts which destroyed the dam are not yet clear, however Ukraine warned late last year that Russian forces had mined the dam as they retreated from Kherson

Ukraine’s state hydroelectric company said the Kakhovka plant was destroyed by an explosion in the engine room – suggesting it was attacked from within rather than by external strikes. 

Ukrainian authorities said 17,000 people were being evacuated and a total of 24 villages had been flooded.

‘Over 40,000 people are in danger of being flooded,’ Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said, adding that 25,000 more people needed to be evacuated on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnieper.

‘The evacuation will continue tomorrow and in the coming days – by bus and train,’ presidential adviser Oleksiy Kuleba said late on Tuesday.

Terrifying video shows houses being swept away and entire towns submerged by the deluge. 

Village streets and fields near to the dam have been swamped by flooding as a Russia-installed local mayor warned that the water level would continue to rise for another 72 hours and claimed he expected 40ft high floods in some places. 

Last October, Zelensky accused Russia of planting mines at the dam, warning that its destruction would spur a new wave of refugees into Europe.

As of Thursday morning, the average flood level in the Kherson region stood at more than 18 feet, Ukrainian regional officials said, adding that about 600 square kilometers, or 230 square miles, remained under water in a region that spans 11,000 square miles.

Of the area under water, 32 percent is in the Ukrainian-controlled West Bank and 68 percent is in the Russian-controlled East Bank. Oleksandr Prokudinthe head of the regional military administration of Ukraine in Kherson.

The Dnipro River is a front line in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Shelling across the river by Russian forces on the eastern side has hampered efforts by Ukrainian authorities and aid agencies to respond effectively to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the dam’s breach.

On Wednesday, Mr Zelensky called for “a clear and swift global response” to the flooding and criticized international agencies that were “incapable of taking action”.

“Every death there marks an indictment of the existing international mosaic, of international organizations that have abandoned the habit of saving lives,” Zelensky said on Telegram.

In peacetime, it is not uncommon for international aid agencies to mobilize quickly and provide assistance, as they did after the deadly earthquakes that hit Syria and Turkey in February. But providing aid becomes increasingly complicated in a war zone.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Twitter on Wednesday that his teams in Ukraine were “working around the clock” to help and evacuate those affected by flooding, and to assess what could be done to support the humanitarian response.

Residents said intense shelling of the Ukrainian-controlled area in the flood zone had continued since the dam broke early Tuesday, with some describing them fleeing the area under fire. Mr Prokudin said Ukraine recorded 353 shells fired from Russian mortars, artillery, missile systems, drones, tanks and aircraft in the region on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said they had evacuated nearly 2,000 people from the Kherson flood plain, including more than 100 children, and set up nine evacuation points. But the state emergency service also warned of the dangers of mines and unexploded ordnance being displaced by floods.

Kremlin-appointed officials said this on the Russian-occupied side of the river on Wednesday at least 1,500 people had been evacuated. But the total number brought to safety is a fraction of the approximately 41,000 people on both sides of the Dnipro who Ukraine says are at risk from the flooding.

The International Organization for Migration, the largest aid agency operating in Ukraine, also said it was assisting in the disaster, warning on Wednesday that thousands of people in a “critical zone” lack drinking water.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Mr Zelensky on Wednesday and said his country would “very quickly” send humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including an initial convoy of about 10 tonnes of supplies requested by Kiev, including water purification tools and portable cisterns.

Aureline Breeden and David Kurkovskiy contributed reporting.