 A pier in the city of Kursin went under the water on June 6 after the Novo-Kakavka Dam was destroyed in a blast. A local resident told Reuters the water level in the Dniepero tributary had risen by one meter. Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the dam from the inside in a deliberate war crime. Russian install officials gave conflicting accounts, some blaming Ukrainian shelling, others saying the dam had burst on its own. The Novo-Kakavka Dam supplies water to Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, both under Russian control. The vast reservoir behind it is one of the main geographic features of southern Ukraine, 240 kilometers long and up to 23 kilometers wide. A swath of countryside lies in the floodplain below. The destruction of the dam creates a new humanitarian disaster in the center of the war zone and transforms the front lines just as Ukraine is unleashing a long-awaited counter-offensive to drive Russian troops from its territory.