Kherson dam blown up, both sides accuse each other
“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the army said.
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Kherson, Jun 06: Ukraine’s military said that Russian forces have blown up a large dam in southern Ukraine, while the Moscow-installed official in the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region denied the claim. “The Kakhovka [reservoir] was blown up by the Russian occupying forces,” the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday on its Facebook page.
“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the army said. Russian state news agency TASS cited an unnamed source close to the matter as saying the dam was destroyed and the territory is flooding.
Whoever has done this, the breaking of the Nova Kachovka dam has grave consequences for both 🇺🇦 and 🇷🇺.
— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) June 6, 2023
Over a dozen towns on both sides of the #Dnipro, including the city of #Kherson will now be flooded.#Crimea meanwhile just lost its most important irrigation canal. https://t.co/bw5XLBN25e pic.twitter.com/tSid2nPUrj
A second Russian state news agency, RIA, cited the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka as saying the dam had been destroyed in shelling blamed on Ukraine. The mayor had earlier denied reports the dam had been targeted. “Everything is quiet and calm, there is nothing at all,” Mayor Vladimir Leontiev was quoted as saying by TASS. 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 Dnieper River as water levels were rising following the destruction of the dam. “The water level is rising and everyone who is in the danger zone must: Turn off all electrical appliances; take documents and essentials; take care of loved ones and pets; follow the instructions of rescuers and policemen,” the administration said on its Telegram messaging channel. The Soviet-era dam in the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region could unleash a flood of water across the war zone, according to Ukrainian and Russian forces. Unverified videos on social media showed a series of intense explosions around the Kakhovka dam. Other videos showed water surging through the remains of the dam with bystanders expressing their shock, sometimes in strong language.
The dam, 30 meters (some 98 feet) tall and 3.2 km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro River as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. According to the Reuters news agency, it holds an 18 km3 reservoir that supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.