KYIV, Ukraine
Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russian forces of blowing up a major dam and hydroelectric power station in a part of southern Ukraine they control, threatening a massive flood that could displace hundreds of thousands of people, and ordered residents downriver to evacuate.
Russian news agency Tass
quoted an unspecified Russian government official as saying the dam had
“collapsed” due to damage.
Ukrainian authorities have
previously warned that the dam’s failure could unleash 18 million cubic meters
(4.8 billion gallons) of water and flood Kherson and dozens of other areas
where hundreds of thousands of people live, as well as threatening a meltdown
at a nearby Russian-occupied nuclear power plant. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
called an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis.
The Ukrainian Interior
Ministry wrote on Telegram that the Kakhovka dam, had been blown up, and called
for residents of 10 villages on the river’s right bank and parts of the city of
Kherson downriver to gather essential documents and pets, turn off appliances,
and leave, while cautioning against possible disinformation.
Footage from what appeared to
be a monitoring camera overlooking the dam that was circulating on social media
purported to show a flash, explosion and breakage of the dam.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head
of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said in a video posted to
Telegram shortly before 7 a.m. that “the Russian army has committed yet another
act of terror,” and warned that water will reach “critical levels” within five
hours.
Zelenskyy moved to convene an
emergency meeting of the country’s security and defense council following the
dam explosion, the council’s secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, wrote on Twitter.
Ukraine and Russia have
previously accused
each other of targeting the dam with attacks, and last October
Zelenskyy predicted that Russia would destroy the dam in order to cause a
flood.
Authorities, experts and
residents have for months expressed concerns about water flows through — and
over — the Kakhovka dam.
In February, water levels were
so low that many feared a meltdown at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear
power plant, whose cooling systems are supplied with water from the Kakhovka
reservoir held up by the dam.Ukrainian soldiers fire at the Russian air target on the frontline near Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, June 5, 2023
By mid-May, after heavy rains
and snow melt, water levels rose beyond normal levels, flooding
nearby villages. Satellite images showed water washing over damaged sluice
gates.
Ukraine controls five of the
six dams along the Dnipro River, which runs from its northern border with
Belarus down to the Black Sea and is crucial for the entire country’s drinking
water and power supply. The Kakhovka dam — the one furthest downstream in the
Kherson region — is controlled by Russian forces.
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