Ukraine says Russian forces blew up Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson

World
By William

DEVELOPING STORY,

Ukrainian authorities are evacuating residents in several areas following the destruction of a major Soviet-era dam.

The Ukrainian army said Russian troops blew up a major dam in southern Ukraine, while the Moscow-installed official in the town of Nova Kakhovka in the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region blamed the destruction of the dam on Ukrainian attributing shelling.

“The Kakhovka [reservoir] was blown up by the Russian occupiers,” the southern command of the Ukrainian armed forces said on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

“The extent of the devastation, the speed and amount of water and likely areas of flooding are being clarified,” the army said.

Ukraine’s military administration for the Kherson region called on people to be ready to evacuate from several villages on the right bank of the Dnipro River as water levels rose after the destruction of the dam.

“The water level is rising and anyone in the danger zone must: Turn off all electrical appliances; bring documents and supplies; care for loved ones and pets; follow the instructions of rescuers and police officers,” the administration said on its Telegram messaging channel.

A satellite image shows water flowing through the Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson region, Ukraine on May 28, 2023 [File: Maxar Technologies/via Reuters].

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called an emergency meeting of the country’s National Security Council following the attack on the dam, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

Zelenskyy later accused “Russian terrorists” of destroying the dam, saying the outcry “confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of the Ukrainian land.”

“They should not leave a single meter because they use every meter for terror,” Zelenskyy wrote in a tweet.

“The terrorists will not be able to stop Ukraine with water, missiles or anything,” he added.

Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted an anonymous source close to the matter as saying that the dam was destroyed and the area was flooded.

A second Russian state news agency, RIA Novosti, quoted Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, as saying the dam had been hit by shelling he blamed on Ukraine.

“There were several hits” on the dam, he said, according to the news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Kiev, said analysts had long seen the dam as a potential target for both sides in the war.

The dam is important for supplying water and irrigation to Russian-occupied Crimea, while Russia could view the dam’s destruction as a way to make it more difficult for Ukrainian troops to cross the Dnipro River and enter Crimea to enter in a ground offensive, Stratford said. .

“We also hear from the Ukrainians that they think that the water level will reach a critical point in five hours. We also know that there are ongoing evacuations of some of the settlements that will be affected,” he said.

The Soviet-era dam in the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region could trigger flooding across the war zone, according to Ukrainian and Russian forces.

TILE - Russian troops patrol an area near the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station, a flow-through power station on the Dnieper River in Kherson region, southern Ukraine, on May 20, 2022. Moscow has warned that Ukraine could attempt to dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station about 50 kilometers (30 miles) upstream and flood large areas, including the city of Kherson. Ukrainian forces that have launched an offensive in the south have targeted Kherson, a provincial capital that has been under Russian control since the early days of the invasion. This photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. (AP photo, file)
In May 2022, Russian troops patrol an area near the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station, a power station on the Dnipro River in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine. [File: AP]

Unverified social media videos showed a series of intense explosions around the Kakhovka dam.

Other videos showed water flowing through the remnants of the dam, with bystanders expressing their shock, sometimes in strong language.

The dam, 30 meters high and 3.2 km long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro River as part of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station.

According to the Reuters news agency, it has an 18 cubic kilometers (4.3 cu mi) reservoir that supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is also under Russian control. .

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