Latest-minute and live news from Russia’s war in Ukraine

Russian forces continue to attack flooded areas of Kherson, including evacuation points, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his late-night speech on Thursday.

“They continue to shell Kherson and communities in the region, which have already been inundated by terrorists. They are even shelling evacuation points, which is a display of evil that perhaps no terrorist in the world, except the Russians, has ever done.” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian authorities earlier reported that at least nine people had been injured by shelling in the southern region, as thousands of people flee floodwaters caused by the collapse of a major dam.

At least 2,339 people were evacuated, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. Zelensky said earlier that all levels of government and local authorities have been working tirelessly to save as many people as they can. But the evacuations have been hampered by continued Russian shelling, as well as a shortage of resources, according to authorities.

In his speech on Thursday, Zelensky said that Russian forces “have completely abandoned the population of the left bank of the Kherson region to their fate.”

“The catastrophe has been going on there for two days. And this is also an absolutely conscious choice of the Russian leadership,” Zelensky said, stating that Moscow is trying “to further aggravate the situation that they have caused with their ecocide.”

“This is absolutely deliberate,” he said.

Remember: it is not yet clear if the dam collapsed because it was deliberately attacked or if the failure could have been due to structural failure. Both Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the collapse.