Moscow and Kyiv traded blame for ripping a gaping hole in the Kakhovka dam as expectations built over the start of Ukraine's long-awaited offensive.

People in the neighboring city of Kherson were heading for higher ground as the water levels rose in the Dnipro River, which was held back by the dam and hydro power plant.

"There is shooting, now there is flooding," said Lyudmyla, who had loaded a washing machine onto a cart that was attached to an old Soviet car.

Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-installed mayor of the town of Nova Kakhovka where the dam is located, said residents of "around 300 homes" had been evacuated. 

On the Russian-occupied side of the Kherson region, officials said there was "no threat" of major population centers being flooded, but said that more than 22,000 people were at risk.

The Kakhovka dam and its hydropower plant were seized by Russia in the first hours of the war. 

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