War in Ukraine – dam near Cherson badly damaged: That’s well known – News


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There is a risk of flooding in southern Ukraine. Ukrainians and Russians blame each other for the explosion.

It’s all about this: The Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled part of the Ukrainian region of Cherson was apparently blown up on Tuesday night. Kiev and Moscow blame each other for the incident with potentially serious consequences. The information provided by both sides has not yet been independently verified. The Ukrainian Task Force South announced that the Russian occupiers themselves blew up the dam in the town of Nowa Kakhovka on the Dnipro. The military governor of the region, Olexander Prokudin, warned that the water level could reach a critical level within five hours.

Possible consequences: Floods are now feared below the blown-up dam – the city of Cherson, which was recaptured by the Ukrainian army last autumn, is around 80 kilometers from the blown-up dam on the lower reaches of the Dnipro. The Ukrainian side said evacuations had started on the right bank of the Dnipro. “The extent of the destruction, the speed and volume of the water and the likely flood areas are being determined,” Prokudin said.

Important dam for both sides


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Legend:

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The dam at Nowa Kachowka is around 30 meters high and 3.2 kilometers long. It was built in 1956 on the Dnipro River as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. The reservoir formed as a result holds around 18 billion cubic meters of water and supplies the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant – it is around 200 kilometers away on the upper reaches of the Dnipro. The Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in violation of international law in 2014, is also supplied with water by the reservoir. According to Russian information, the cooling of the nuclear power plant will not be affected by the blowing up of the Nowa Kakhovka dam.

That’s what the Russians say: The Russian occupiers of Nowa Kakhovka blamed Ukrainian shelling for the damage to the dam and spoke of “terror”. “The water has risen,” said the Moscow-appointed mayor in Nowa Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, according to the Russian state news agencies. According to the Russian news agency Tass, up to 80 villages are threatened by possible flooding.

Ukraine’s president blames the Russians

Backgrounds: It would make little military sense for the Ukrainians to blow up the dam, says Florian Hassel. He is the Ukraine correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. For the Russians, however, it could be an advantage if the floods made it impossible for the Ukrainians to attack the Russian positions. If the Ukrainian army could cross the Dnipro and recapture the eastern parts of the Kherson region, it would be a very difficult situation for the Russian military. After all, the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, lies in this direction.

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