Ukrainians face homelessness, disease as floodwaters crest from destroyed dam

Ukrainians abandoned their inundated homes as floodwaters crested across a swathe of the south on Wednesday after the destruction of a vast dam on the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces that each blamed on the other.

Residents waded through flooded streets carrying children on their shoulders, dogs in their arms and belongings in plastic bags while rescuers used rubber boats to search areas where the waters reached above head height.

Ukraine said the flood would leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to drinking water, swamp tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land and turn more into deserts.

"If the water rises for another metre, we will lose our house," said Oleksandr Reva, in a village on the bank, who was moving his family's belongings into the abandoned home of a neighbour on higher ground. A roof of a house could be seen being swept down the Dnipro River in a torrent.