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Kakhovka dam in Kherson region “damaged” by Ukrainian strike, accuses Russia

The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in the Ukrainian administrative region of Kherson (occupied by Russian forces) was “damaged” following a Ukrainian strike on Sunday, according to regional emergency services. “Today at 10 a.m. [9 heures, heure de Paris], six Himars missiles were launched. Air defense units shot down five, one of which hit the sluice of the Kakhovka dam, which was damaged”said a representative of the emergency services, quoted by the Russian agencies.

” Everything is under control “quickly announced Ruslan Agaev, the representative of the administration installed by Moscow of Nova Kakhovka, the village where the dam is located, 60 kilometers east as the crow flies from the big city of Kherson. “A missile hit [le site]but did not cause critical damage”he said, quoted by the Russian agencies.

kyiv accused Moscow two weeks ago of having “mined the dam”. Accusations qualified “lies”according to the Russian occupation authorities.

The Kakhovka dam, taken at the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, notably makes it possible to supply water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Moscow. Laid out on the Dnieper River in 1956, during the Soviet period, the work is built partly of concrete and earth. It is one of the largest infrastructures of this type in Ukraine.

For several days, the Russian occupation authorities have been carrying out, in the villages around the site, “evacuations” of civilians facing a “possible missile attack” on the Kakhovka dam, the destruction of which would entail “the flooding of the left bank” of the Dnieper, according to the regional governor installed by Moscow in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo.

If the dam explodes, “more than 80 localities, including Kherson, will find themselves in the zone of rapid flooding”was, for his part, alarmed, on October 21, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, before the Council of the European Union. “It could destroy the water supply of a large part of southern Ukraine” and affect the cooling of the reactors of the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, which draws its water from this artificial lake of 18 million cubic meters, he warned.

Ukraine had requested an international observation mission. Kakhovka is about 60 kilometers east as the crow flies of Kherson, the first major city to fall into Russian hands in March.

Read also: The Kakhovka dam, a new challenge in the Ukrainian counter-offensive

source site-29