Destroyed Kachowka Dam
Zelenskyj convenes national security council
6/6/2023 8:23 am
The explosions at the Kachowka Dam release enormous amounts of water. President Zelenskyy blames “Russian terrorists” and convenes Ukraine’s National Security Council. Meanwhile, the UN nuclear authority currently sees no danger for the nearby Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council after explosions at a key dam in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine. This was announced by Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov on Twitter in the morning.
Selenskyj himself sees the destruction of the Kachokwa dam as confirmation of the need to expel the Russian armed forces from all of Ukraine. “Russian terrorists. The destruction of the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station only proves to the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of the Ukrainian land,” he wrote on Telegram. “Not a single meter should remain for them, because they use every meter for terror.”
Earlier, Ukraine had accused the Russian occupiers of blowing up the dam in the Kherson region on the southern side of the Dnipro River, potentially causing severe flooding. Moscow denied this and spoke of Ukrainian shelling, which is said to have caused the damage to the Kakhovka dam. The representations of both sides could not initially be checked independently.
Presidential adviser Andriy Yermak described the destruction of the Kakhovka dam as “ecocide” and also blamed Russia for it. Russia’s actions are also a threat to the nearby Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Yermak wrote on Telegram, but did not elaborate. Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on twitter. The authority’s experts are monitoring the situation “closely”; there is currently no immediate nuclear danger for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
According to the governor, Ukraine has started evacuating areas around the city of Kakhovka. “Within five hours the water will reach a critical level,” Kherson Oblast governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram in the morning. He expresses himself at 06:45 local time (05:45 CEST).
Russia had attacked neighboring Ukraine more than 15 months ago and also occupied the Cherson region as part of its war of aggression. Last fall, the Ukrainian army then managed to liberate part of the region – including the regional capital of the same name, Cherson. However, towns south of the Dnipro remained under Russian control, including the dam town of Nowa Kakhovka.