Global Courant
A massive Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro River separating Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine burst on Tuesday, flooding the war zone.
Ukraine said Russia destroyed it, while Russia said Ukraine sabotaged it to cut off water supplies to Crimea and divert attention from a “faltering” counter-offensive.
What is the dam, what happened – and what don’t we know?
The Nova Kakhovka Dam
The dam, part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, is 30 meters high and 3.2 kilometers long. Construction was started under Soviet leader Josef Stalin and completed under Nikita Khrushchev.
The dam bridged the Dnipro River, which forms the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine.
The construction of the 2,155 square kilometer Kakhovka Reservoir during the Soviet era forced about 37,000 people to leave their homes.
The reservoir contains 18 cubic kilometers of water – a volume roughly equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah.
The reservoir also 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.
What happened?
Ukraine, which was the first to respond, said Russia was responsible:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station from the plant and said Russia should be held accountable for a “terrorist attack”.
“At 02:50, Russian terrorists carried out an internal detonation of the structures of the Kakhovskaya HPP. About 80 settlements are located in the flood zone,” Zelenskyy said after an emergency meeting of senior officials.
A Ukrainian army spokesman said Russia’s goal was to prevent Ukrainian troops from crossing the Dnipro River to attack the Russian occupiers.
Russia said Ukraine sabotaged the dam to cut off water supply to Crimea and divert attention from the faltering counter-offensive.
“We can say unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters.
Earlier, some Russian-installed officials said no attack had taken place. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in Zaporizhzhia, said the dam collapsed due to previous damage and the pressure of the water. The Russian state news agency TASS released a report to the same effect.
What is the human impact?
As water levels continue to rise, many thousands of people are likely to be affected. Evacuations of civilians began on both sides of the front line.
The view from a vehicle of flooded areas after the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s Kherson region was breached on Tuesday. (Oleksandr Vlasov/Reuters)
About 22,000 people living in 14 settlements in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region are at risk of flooding, Russian-installed officials said. They told the people to be ready to evacuate.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said up to 80 settlements were at risk of flooding.
Crimea
The dam’s destruction threatens to lower the water level of the Soviet-era North Crimean Canal, which has traditionally supplied Crimea with 85 percent of its water needs.
Most of that water is used for agriculture, some for the industries of the Black Sea Peninsula, and about one-fifth for drinking water and other public needs.
Nuclear power plant
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe, draws its cooling water from the reservoir. It is located on the south side, now under Russian control.
“Our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk to the safety of the plant,” said Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Organization.
He said it was essential that a cooling pond remain intact as it provided enough water to cool the shut down reactors.
“Nothing should be done to potentially undermine its integrity,” said Grossi.
