This is the Guardian. A week ago in the early hours of June 6th the Nova Kakovka Dam in Russian occupied

southern Ukraine was destroyed. A potential humanitarian crisis developing near the

front lines in Ukraine this morning, vast quantities of

water gushing over this major dam after Ukraine says Russian forces who control the surrounding

area caused an explosion.

The Nova Kukovka Dam sits on the southern reach of the Denypro River and it holds back a reservoir

so big that locals call it the Kakova Sea.

When it collapsed, water surged downstream,

causing catastrophic damage and forcing thousands to evacuate.

Drone footage showed rooftops barely holding above rising water lines.

Some swept away entirely by the Niepro River,

as floodwaters engulfed Village after village in southern Ukraine.

It's our home where we live, or it was.

Maybe it will be again when it dries out.

Amnesty International have called it a huge humanitarian disaster,

but the destruction is also likely to have a devastating environmental impact on animals, ecosystems and levels of toxic pollution.

So what do we know about the ecological damage done so far?

Could it amount to ecocide?

And what role is damage to the environment playing in the Doug Weir, you're the research and policy director at the Conflict and Environment Observatory,

a British organisation that's been tracking the environmental impact of the war in Ukraine.

First of all, why has the Nova Kocova Dam become so strategically important in this conflict?

So in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, the Ukrainian government blocked up the North Crimean Canal and the entry point of this

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