news summary
- An explosion destroyed the dam of the hydroelectric plant in New Kakhovka, Ukraine, resulting in partial flooding of the area and the declaration of a state of emergency by the Russian authorities imposed in the region.
- Ukraine blames the destruction of the plant on an “internal detonation” caused by Russian forces, calling the incident a “terrorist attack” and a “war crime”.
- Around 900 people were evacuated from the flooded areas and Russian authorities say responsibility lies with the Ukrainian regime, denying any involvement.
- The damaged dam could be operational again in about four days, but the damage to the hydroelectric plant is irreparable, according to Ukrainian company Ukrhidroenergo.
Authorities imposed by Russia in Nova Kakhovka, Ukraine, declared a state of emergency this Tuesday (06) after the rupture of the upper structure of its hydroelectric dam and partial flooding of the area.
The measure came into effect at 12:00 local time (06:00 GMT), according to the pro-Russian mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev.
The plant is under Russian control and located on the Dnieper River, whose eastern bank is under occupation by Moscow forces, while on the other side of the infrastructure begins the territory under Ukrainian control.
According to the emergency services in the area, around 600 houses have already been flooded in the district.
The water level near New Kakhovka, occupied by Russia for over 15 months, is currently over 10 meters, according to Leontiev.
“The water has risen, it continues to rise (…) The city is flooding, the Dnieper avenue is already under water. This means that the water has risen by more than ten meters,” reported the mayor of the city.
According to Leontiev, the water can rise a maximum of 12.5 meters in the hydroelectric power station area.
The rupture of the dam, produced, according to Russia, by an attack with multiple launchers of Ukrainian Alder missiles and, according to Kiev, by an explosion caused inside the hydroelectric plant, affects 14 cities where 22,000 people live, according to the president of the imposed government by Moscow in the Kherson region, Andrei Alekseenko.
The Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, the fifth largest in Ukraine, has a capacity of 334.8 megawatts (for comparison, the Itaipu hydroelectric plant has a capacity of 14 gigawatts). Its reservoir, built in the 1950s, contained 18 million cubic meters of water before Tuesday’s disaster (the Itaipu reservoir contains 29 billion m³).
Zelensky speaks of “internal detonation”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed the destruction of the hydroelectric plant on an “internal detonation” caused by Russian forces.
“On this night, at 2:50 am (local time, 8:50 pm on Monday in Brasilia), Russian terrorists caused the internal detonation of the structures of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric plant,” Zelensky said on his Telegram account after an urgent meeting with his Council of Security to assess the situation.
During the meeting, the Ukrainian head of state ordered the evacuation of the areas most at risk of flooding, where about 80 cities are located.
Zelensky also called for clean water to be provided “to all cities and towns” that depended on the destroyed dam.
“We do everything we can to save people. All services, the army, the government, the president’s office are involved,” said Zelensky, who promised to take “a series of international and security measures so that Russia pays for its responsibilities” in what he described as a “terrorist attack “.
For her part, the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Daria Zavirna, stated in her Telegram account that Russia “planned the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant a long time ago”.
Zarivna said Russian occupation authorities had raised the water level to the maximum to intensify the flooding resulting from the dam’s explosion.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the explosion a “war crime” and the “biggest man-made disaster” in Europe in decades.
“Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam, causing probably the biggest man-made technological disaster in Europe in recent decades and endangering the lives of thousands of civilians. This is a terrible war crime,” Kuleba wrote on his Twitter account. .
“The only way to stop Russia, the biggest terrorist of the 21st century, is to expel it from Ukraine,” added the Ukrainian foreign minister.
Before Kuleba commented on the incident, the Ukrainian public hydroelectric company, Ukrhidroenergo, said the damage to the Nova Kakhovka plant was “irreparable” and was caused by “a detonation in the engine room from the inside”.
“As a result of the detonation of the engine room from the inside, the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was completely destroyed. The plant cannot be repaired”, states the company’s official statement.
Ukrhidroenergo adds, however, that the dam damaged in the blast could “be operational” again within “four days”.
About 900 people were evacuated.
About 900 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas of the city, Russian-imposed authorities in the region reported on Tuesday.
“In Nova Kakhovka, the floods reached the administrative headquarters and the water level continues to rise. So far, about 900 people have been evacuated,” said a representative of the city’s emergency services, quoted by the Russian agency “Interfax”.
According to the latest data from the emergency services, the water level rose by 12 meters in Nova Kakhovka, 11.2 meters in the town of Dnipriani and 7.3 meters in Korsunka.
Dnipriani and Korsunka — the latter completely submerged — are located downriver immediately after Nova Kakhovka.
Kremlin denies allegations
The Kremlin denied Ukraine’s accusations that Russia was behind the destruction of the New Kakhovka dam and said it was “a deliberate sabotage” by Kiev.
“We categorically deny these accusations. This is deliberate sabotage, planned and organized by order of the Kiev regime,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told his daily telephone news conference.
Peskov added that all responsibility for the consequences of the disaster now lies with the Ukrainian side.
A Kremlin spokesman linked the dam explosion to the Ukrainian counter-offensive and said Kiev took this step because it “fails to achieve its objectives” on the battlefield.
“Their offensive operations are sinking,” he declared.
At the same time, Peskov redirected a question to the Russian Ministry of Defense about the impact of what happened on the Russian war campaign.
This is because the hydroelectric dam is of great importance not only for its energy capabilities, but also because it connects the right and left banks of the Dnieper River, which has become the front line between the Russian and Ukrainian armies.
According to Peskov, one of the objectives of the attack was to leave the Crimean peninsula without water, which, however, has enough reserves in its reservoirs for the moment.
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