Russia has bombed residential buildings and evacuation points in Kherson as people fled their flooded homes, with shelling leaving three injured and at least one person dead, according to Ukraine.

The cruel bombardment by Vladimir Putin’s forces comes as the region deals with devastating flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Russian-held territory, which Kyiv labelled a ‘terrorist act’ by Moscow.

Evacuation points – including the one visited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day – were reportedly targeted by shelling, with civilians, journalists and rescuers taking shelter and operations being put on hold.

‘The shelling began precisely during the evacuation of citizens whose homes were flooded,’ Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

It reiterated accusations that Russia has abandoned people in the territory it has occupied in the region, adding that it ‘continues to prevent Ukraine from saving the most valuable – human lives.’

Videos show terrified residents running for their lives as their homes, surrounded by floodwater, appear to come under attack. Further footage showed smoke rising from a water-logged town near what appears to be an evacuation boat.

Burning buildings were also filmed, with reports that fire and rescue crews were unable to reach bombed sites due to the high floodwaters. 

Volunteers with boats have shared footage from inside the flooded city, showing residents looking out of their dilapidated homes as they await rescue. 

One rescuer, Andry Boxer, posted videos on Instragram documenting missions he carried out on a small motor boat, helping to save people as well as helpless pets.

Among those he helped to evacuate was an elderly man, who had suffered a severe injury and had blood streaming out of his head. The cause of his injury is unknown.

As artillery fire rang out over Kherson, rescue workers were seen taking shelter wherever they could, halting their crucial work. 

In a video shared by Sky’s Alex Crawford, who is on the ground in the city, rescuers and civilians are seen running in panic as they could hear of shelling. 

‘There are some civilians wounded and dead as a result of Russian shelling in the centre of Kherson, the number is being clarified,’ military spokesman Sergiy Sergeyev said earlier this afternoon. At least three people were wounded, police said. 

Moscow has itself blasted Kyiv for what it said were attacks on rescue workers in Russian-held territory on the east bank of the Dnieper river.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘The difficulty is that in a lot of places they [the rescuers] are forced to work in conditions of ongoing shelling from Ukraine, and this complicates their work.’

Kyiv also accused Moscow of hampering the evacuation effort with shelling yesterday.

‘Evacuation continues. Under fire!’ President Zelensky said. ‘Russian artillery continues to fire, no matter what. Savages.

‘Our military and special services are rescuing people as much as it is possible, despite the shelling.’

Routes out of the flooded city were bombed today shortly after Ukrainian President Zelensky was seen at an evacuation point in the city earlier today.

The devastation caused by the dam breach was reflected in the sombre expression of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as he visited the region today, where thousands continue to flee their homes.

The battle-hardened leader appeared uncharacteristically emotional as he took in the scale of the flooding – described as Europe’s worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl.

Close to 20,000 people have been rescued from the resulting deluge, Kyiv confirmed last night. Another 40,000 face evacuation as streets across dozens of settlements have turned into rivers.

As Ukrainians continue to be evacuated from affected areas, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka said on Russian state TV that five people have died.

Moscow-backed mayor Vladimir Leontyev said those who had died were among seven local residents declared missing following the dam collapse. The two others were found, he said, and efforts were being made to evacuate them.

Chilling aerial photographs show houses submerged by the high water, with people’s homes, livelihoods, belongings and pets now abandoned.

Rescuers were using boats and amphibious vehicles to pluck people from flooded areas.

President Zelensky thanked the brave rescuers and volunteers and said ‘our task is to protect lives and help people as much as possible’. 

One woman, Tetiana Omelchenko, 65, said she had waited two days for evacuation from her block of flats and had to climb through a broken window to reach a rescue boat.

‘In my building, the water has reached the third floor and there are still people in there,’ she said.

An employee at Kherson’s meteorological agency, Lora Musiyan, waded into the water to mark the current level: 5.33 metres above the norm.

‘That’s the height of two storeys – you can only survive this on a roof,’ she said.

The Russian state-owned news agency Tass, citing emergency services in the occupied region, said that up to 14,000 homes have been flooded and nearly 4,300 people evacuated. 

Twenty-three people were seen by doctors of which 21 were hospitalised, medical services reported. 

President Zelensky also met with advisors to consider how to move forward following the widespread flooding.

He wrote on Telegram: ‘Many important issues were discussed. The operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential flood zones, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organization of life support for the flooded areas,’ he said on his Telegram channel.

‘Also, the prospects for restoring the region’s ecosystem and the operational military situation in the man-made disaster area.’

The destruction of the dam on the Dnieper River, which separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, is set to displace tens of thousands of people.

Writing on twitter, the deputy foreign minister Andrij Melnyk compared the flood to the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant that sent a radioactive cloud across Europe. 

‘The worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster. Only this time Moscow deliberately used this weapon of mass destruction against the Ukrainians. Who else wants to negotiate with Putin?’ he wrote. 

The cause of the blasts which destroyed the dam are not yet clear, however Ukraine warned late last year that Russian forces had mined the dam as they retreated from Kherson

Ukraine’s state hydroelectric company said the Kakhovka plant was destroyed by an explosion in the engine room – suggesting it was attacked from within rather than by external strikes. 

Ukrainian authorities said 17,000 people were being evacuated and a total of 24 villages had been flooded.

‘Over 40,000 people are in danger of being flooded,’ Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said, adding that 25,000 more people needed to be evacuated on the Russian-occupied side of the Dnieper.

‘The evacuation will continue tomorrow and in the coming days – by bus and train,’ presidential adviser Oleksiy Kuleba said late on Tuesday.

Terrifying video shows houses being swept away and entire towns submerged by the deluge. 

Village streets and fields near to the dam have been swamped by flooding as a Russia-installed local mayor warned that the water level would continue to rise for another 72 hours and claimed he expected 40ft high floods in some places. 

Last October, Zelensky accused Russia of planting mines at the dam, warning that its destruction would spur a new wave of refugees into Europe.

Republican Party presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has donated $10,000 to a crowdfunding effort for Daniel Penny who was charged with second-degree manslaughter for the death of a homeless schizophrenic. 

The GiveSendGo fundraising campaign – which has now soared to $2 million in donations – was set up by the 24-year-old ex-marine’s attorneys after a video emerged of him holding Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a New York City subway on May 1. 

They say it will be used to pay for the Long Island native’s legal fees and for ‘any future civil lawsuits that may arise, as well as expenses related to his defense.’ 

On May 5, Rawaswamy tweeted his opinions on the case, stating that Jordan Neely was a ‘habitual offender’ who should have ‘faced justice’ earlier. 

He went on to list a series of crimes which Neely had been arrested for in the past eight years.

He penned: ‘The moral of the Jordan Neely story isn’t complicated: he was a habitual offender who should’ve been behind bars or in a mental institution, not free to terrorize New Yorkers. If local police had been allowed to do their jobs, that man would still be alive today – in custody.

‘In 2015, Jordan Neely kidnapped a 7 year old girl. In 2019, Jordan Neely punched a 64 year old man in the face. In 2021, Jordan Neely slugged a 67 year old woman in the face as she exited the subway, breaking her nose and fracturing her orbital bone. Neely was arrested 44 times, but never faced real justice for terrorizing New Yorkers. The @ManhattanDA shares responsibility for his death for creating an anti law enforcement culture. Habitual felons like Neely should not roam freely to terrorize & prey on innocent members of our communities.’ 

On Friday, Penny was freed pending trial hours after turning himself in at a police precinct and appearing in court to answer criminal charges. He did not enter a plea.

On Sunday, the campaign page hit the £1 million mark after Florida governor Ron DeSantis shared a Twitter link to the page – showing that support for the former soldier has soared quickly. 

Many of those who have donated large sums to Penny’s cause are anonymous, including another who also made a $10,000 pledge.

They left a comment which read: ‘Thank you for protecting the citizens that day.’ 

The third highest giver, who pledged $5,000, is also anonymous.

That person wrote: ‘Do the right thing. Dan did. It’s not that tough.’

Following his arrest, Bail bondsman Ira Judelson told DailyMail.com Penny was ‘very quiet and nervous’ and was ‘respectful’. 

While Penny was charged in the aftermath— the other two men seen in the video seen holding Neely down were never named nor charged with any wrongdoing. 

Now, Penny’s family says, the Marine vet is being ‘railroaded’ by the legal system.

‘It’s disgusting,’ Justine Baldwin, Penny’s cousin, told the New York Post. ‘Here’s a young man who served our country.’

‘What about the other two gentlemen on the subway who were helping him (restrain Neely)? They haven’t even been named.’

While footage of Penny restraining Neely sparked controversy, his relatives have described him as ‘calm’ and a ‘fun kid’.

Some have attempted to depict the veteran as a privileged individual in the aftermath of the incident, but those that knew him revealed he grew up in a middle-class military family in Long Island.

‘He was always there for his family and his sisters,’ added Baldwin. ‘Danny has always been calm, he comes from a calm family.’

Neighbors reportedly added that he even lived out of a van at one time, while he previously shared a three-bedroom home with his three sisters and parents.

‘Danny was always fun and goofy and never harmed anyone,’ said the Marine’s friend Devin Marino.

‘He was always super inclusive,’ he added. ‘His family was really nice and had an open door policy.’

Neighbors who knew Penny and his family in West Islip also praised the veteran, with Marcia Mulcahy, who lived across the street from him for four years, describing him as ‘a lovely kid.’

‘The family could not have been nicer,’ she added. ‘Just look at the fundraiser to see how people feel about him.

‘We’re all contributing to it. He was just trying to help on the subway. It was obviously a scary situation and it all went wrong. But he didn’t go in there trying to hurt anyone. He was trying to help.’

Penny’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, revealed the veteran had been deployed twice over four years of service with the Marines, where he rose to the rank of sergeant before he was honorably discharged in 2021.