The death toll in severe floods in western Ukraine has reached 22 people, including six children, and forced around 20,000 people to leave their homes, officials said on Monday.
Fifteen people were killed in the Ivano-Frankivsk region in southwestern Ukraine while seven people were killed in the Chernivtsy region, spokesman for the Emergency Situation Ministry Ihor Krol told a news conference.
"Water levels after five days of uninterrupted rain remained dangerously high on the Prut and Dnestr rivers. More than 40,000 homes were flooded, over 900 bridges were damaged by floods," Krol said.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko declared Monday a three-month state of emergency in western Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government proposed at an emergency session Monday allocating about 296 million U.S. dollars for clean-up operations.
"We will submit all these amendments to the Ukrainian state budget to parliament later Monday," Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said, adding that damages are estimated at more than 600 million U.S. dollars.
Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Ukraine's parliament, which is on its summer recess, could hold an extraordinary session to discuss the allocation of budget funds for dealing with the aftermath of the floods.
First Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchinov at the weekend described the flooding as the worst in a century.
Source:Xinhua
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