A major dam and power plant were damaged early Tuesday in a part of southern Ukraine controlled by Russia, causing massive flooding and putting thousands of homes at risk.
It was not immediately clear what caused the destruction. Both sides accused each other of being responsible for the incident, which comes as a long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive appears to have begun.
Video footage released by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on his official Telegram channel showed water from the Nova Kakhovka dam moving downriver toward the city of Kherson, where hundreds of thousands of people live. The Russia-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka said the town itself was underwater, state media reported.
Ukrainian officials said evacuations were underway. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is also nearby, though it is located upstream from the dam − also in territory controlled by Russia.
The Kakhovka dam holds back about 18 million cubic meters (4.8 billion gallons) of water. At maximum capacity, Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by Hoover Dam, holds about 9.3 trillion gallons.
Who blew up the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric plant?
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry wrote on Telegram that the Kakhovka dam had been blown up by Russia. Russian officials countered that the Kakhovka dam was damaged by Ukrainian military strikes in the contested area. Ukraine has been warning for almost a year that Russia may try to destroy the dam.
In his Telegram post, Zelenskyy blamed “Russian terrorists” for the dam’s destruction. He said the incident “only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”
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Nova Kakhovka dam: Why it’s significant
The Kakhovka dam is one of six dams along the Dnipro River. It is crucial for drinking water and power supply for southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. The dam itself is about 100-feet tall and stretches for some 2 miles. It was built in 1956. Russian officials said that about 22,000 people across 14 settlements could be impacted by flooding. Ukrainian officials said up to 80 settlements were at risk.
Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom said in a Telegram statement that the blowing up of the dam “could have negative consequences for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” but at the moment situation is “controllable.” A severe drop in the reservoir has the potential to deprive the nuclear plant of crucial cooling.
The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency wrote on Twitter that its experts were closely monitoring the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk” at the facility.
The IAEA said in a separate statement that water in the reservoir was “at around 16.4 meters (53.8 feet) as of 8 a.m. local time. If it drops below 12.7 meters then it can no longer be pumped.” The IAEA said that the reservoir was reducing at a rate of approximately 5 centimeters (0.39 inches) per hour.
Is Ukraine’s counteroffensive finally underway?
Ukraine and Russia are fighting an information war, as well as one on the battlefield. This makes it extremely difficult to know how much weight to give to military-related statements from either side. It was also not immediately clear whether or how the damage to the dam could impact Ukraine’s military plans.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Monday that Ukrainian forces had begun a “large-scale offensive on five sectors of the front in the southern Donetsk area” and said its troops fended off at least one attack. Ukraine officials have said they won’t formally announce the start of the counteroffensive, but over the last few weeks they have acknowledged that their forces were increasing preparedness and some offensive operations.
At least two pro-Ukrainian militant groups appeared to have mounted incursions into Russian territory in recent weeks. Ukraine’s leadership has distanced itself from those operations.
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“Ukraine continues to be smart,” wrote Phillips P. O’Brien, a professor of strategic security studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, in a recent blog that focuses on the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“They are looking to cause a collapse in the Russian army first and foremost − and everything we are seeing in the shaping operations means they are giving themselves the best possible chance to do that.”
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