Ukraine warns of disease, mass fish deaths following dam destruction

The spread of diseases as well as mass fish die-offs that could produce botulism is worrying the Ukrainian Health Ministry following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.

The ministry, in a Facebook post on Wednesday, said that chemicals and pathogens could enter wells and water bodies in the flooded Kherson region as a result of the floods.

Experts from the ministry are already on the ground analyzing water samples, it added.

Regional stocks of antibiotics were to be increased in order to be able to treat more people for intestinal infections.

The Ukrainian authority also said that in the next three to five days the water level would drop again, which would probably lead to a mass fish kill.

Fish consumption is banned to minimize the risk of botulism - a life-threatening nerve poisoning.

The dam in the town of Nova Kakhovka was destroyed on Tuesday in the Russian-occupied part of the region. Ukraine and many Western observers are convinced that the Russian occupiers blew up the dam themselves - possibly in order to hinder the planned Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Kremlin, in turn, blames Kiev.