A senior Russia-installed official in occupied southern Ukraine on Tuesday acknowledged that overnight strikes destroyed parts of the Nova Kakhovka dam — reversing his earlier comments that no damage had been caused.

Nova Kakhovka Mayor Vladimir Leontiev said the strike on the dam was "a serious terrorist attack," Russian state media TASS reported.

"Around 2 a.m. there were a number of repeated strikes on the Kakhovka HPP (hydropower plant), which destroyed the 'shonors' [gate valves], as they are called in common parlance. As a result, water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to be spilled downstream uncontrollably," Leontiev said, according to TASS.There is no need to evacuate Nova Kakhovka yet, he added, though Ukrainian officials say evacuations around the dam have already begun.

Earlier on Tuesday, Leontiev had denied the dam had collapsed in an interview with Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti, calling it "nonsense."

Ukraine's military has accused Russia of blowing up the dam.