A year after the destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, a video of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attack on the station was shown from HIMARS

Exactly a year ago, on June 6, 2023, the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was destroyed as a result of shelling in the Kherson region. The failure of a hydroelectric dam led to dozens of casualties, an environmental disaster and damage estimated at hundreds of billions of rubles.

A year after the destruction of the station, RIA Novosti published a video of the attack on the hydroelectric power station. The attack was carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, presumably from the American HIMARS missile system.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces regularly fired at the station even before its destruction

In a video posted on Thursday, asserts RIA Novosti captured the impact on the hydroelectric power station even before its destruction. Two explosions are visible – the first, more powerful, leaves behind a high pillar of fire.

It is indicated that at that moment the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric station survived. According to the fighters of the Russian group of troops “Dnepr”, who guarded the Kakovskaya hydroelectric power station a year ago, the Ukrainian Armed Forces regularly fired at the facility with mortars, artillery and HIMARS.

In the region, on the anniversary of the destruction of the hydroelectric power station, they announced the proven guilt of Kyiv

The governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, earlier on June 6, on the anniversary of the destruction of the hydroelectric power station, said that Ukraine’s guilt in the attacks on it had been proven. “The available facts and evidence were quite sufficient from the very beginning of the disaster,” the head of the region emphasized.

The region also reported that a year after the disaster in the Kherson region, several hundred people whose houses were in the flood zone still remain in temporary accommodation centers (TAP).

Deputy Governor of the region Tatyana Kuzmich said that they go from temporary housing to work, and their children go to school. However, some of them still do not have documents. The largest percentage of those in temporary temporary detention centers are residents of the Skadovsky municipal district – 188 people remain in centers there.

And the head of the Novokakhovsky district, Vitaly Gura, said on the anniversary that the hydroelectric dam will be restored, since irrigation of the south of the Kherson region depends on it. “I think this can be done within two years,” he emphasized.

The possibility of restoration in the Kherson region was announced shortly after the destruction. At the same time, on the Ukrainian side, energy workers argued that the hydroelectric power station could not be restored, but they admitted the possibility of building a new one.

The destruction of the hydroelectric power station led to an environmental and humanitarian disaster

The Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was destroyed as a result of shelling from the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the night of June 6, 2023. At least 14 of the dam’s 28 spans were reported to have collapsed, causing water from the Kakhovka Reservoir to be released uncontrollably downstream. The water level in the reservoir rose by 2.5 meters in the first hours; later it was reported that in the Dnieper it increased by 10 meters.

Dozens of settlements found themselves in the flood zone, including the city of Novaya Kakhovka, where the water level rose by five meters in the first day (the water left the city only a few days later). The authorities began evacuating people; at least eight thousand people were taken from the flood zone.

A month later, it was reported that the number of victims was 53 people; at that time, 139 people were in hospitals due to the disaster.

The destruction led to an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe, as stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. A huge territory was flooded, and the Kakhovka Reservoir, on the contrary, became very shallow (it was even argued that it had virtually ceased to exist), and vast areas became like a desert. The water used for the needs of residents turned out to be contaminated with infections.

The damage from the destruction of the hydroelectric power station, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources, amounted to 468 billion rubles. Senator from the Kherson region Igor Kastyukevich clarified that it is colossal and has not yet been fully calculated. “These are mainly social, infrastructure facilities and people’s housing, compensation payments for the loss of houses and property. The final amount of damage will be clear as soon as each evacuee finds housing and the infrastructure is restored,” he explained.