Ukraine said Russia blew up a giant dam and unleashed an environmental catastrophe, with floodwater sweeping across the south of the country as Kyiv’s forces intensify their counteroffensive to oust Moscow’s troops from occupied territory.

The Kremlin denied responsibility and said Ukraine was behind the breach at the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant early Tuesday as the torrent of water threatened to force tens of thousands of people from their homes and renewed fears for the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power station. Wheat prices jumped, while a separate explosion on an ammonia pipeline shut down in the war underscored the vulnerability of key infrastructure as the fighting enters a critical new phase.

“This is the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address to central and eastern European leaders at the B-9 summit in Slovakia. Russian forces controlled the hydro power plant for more than a year “and they blew it up,” he said.

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