threat of flooding
Kiev: Russians blew up Kakhovka Dam
06/06/2023, 06:40 am
In recent months, Ukraine has repeatedly warned that Russian troops could blow up the Kakhovka dam. The barrier now appears to have been destroyed. The Ukrainian General Staff blames Moscow for this.
According to the Ukrainian military, the Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled part of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson has been blown up by Russian forces. “The extent of the destruction, the speed and volume of the water and the probable flood areas are currently being clarified,” writes the South Command on its Facebook page.
The Russian-appointed chief of occupation of the city of Nowa Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, had previously contradicted reports of the dam being blown up, according to the Russian state news agency RIA. However, numerous posts and videos are circulating on social media, according to which the dam was destroyed. Leontyev later stated that only “the upper part of the power plant” was damaged, but the dam itself was intact.
The dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station and the reservoir of the same name are located on the Dnipro, about 85 kilometers upstream from the city of Kherson. The barrier structure is several kilometers long and is controlled by Russian troops. The dam is of strategic importance as it supplies drinking water to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed. In recent months, Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of wanting to destroy the dam in order to flood areas further south.
In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of a “large-scale catastrophe”. In the event of a dam bursting, hundreds of thousands of people on the Dnipro are in danger. The cooling system at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant could also be affected by an interrupted water supply, he warned.