KYIV, Ukraine – The wall of a major dam in southern Ukraine controlled by Moscow collapsed Tuesday after a reported explosion, sending water gushing downriver and prompting dire warnings of environmental damage as officials from both sides of the conflict ordered residents to evacuate.
Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and hydroelectric power station, while Russia blamed Ukrainian military strikes in the disputed area.
The fallout could have far-reaching consequences: flooding homes, streets and businesses downstream; depleting water levels upstream that help cool Europe’s largest nuclear power plant; and draining supplies of drinking water to the south in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed.
The dam burst provided a striking new dimension to Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine, now in its 16th month. Ukrainian forces were widely seen to be advancing with a long-anticipated counteroffensive in patches along more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of frontline in Ukraine’s east and south.
It was not immediately clear whether either side benefits from the damage to the dam, since both Russian-controlled and Ukrainian-held lands are at risk of flooding. The damage might also impede Ukraine’s southern advance, while Russia relies on the dam to deliver water to the Crimea area, which it illegally annexed in 2014.
In the face of official outrage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. He claimed that Russian military detonated a bomb inside the dam construction around 2.50 a.m. (2350 GMT), threatening 80 communities.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear operator, said in a Telegram statement that the dam damage “could have negative consequences” for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, but that the situation is currently “controllable.”
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there is “no immediate risk to the safety of the plant,” which requires water for its cooling system.
It said that IAEA staff on site have been told the dam level is falling by 5 centimeters (2 inches) an hour. The reservoir’s supply should last a few days at that rate, it said.
The plant also has alternate water sources, including a massive cooling pond that may provide water “for some months,” according to the statement.
Ukrainian authorities have previously warned that if the dam fails, 18 million cubic meters (4.8 billion gallons) of water will be released, flooding Kherson and dozens of other areas inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people.
A Ukrainian voluntary organization, the World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development, anticipated that approximately 100 villages and towns will be flooded. It also predicted that the water level would begin to fall after five to seven days.
A total collapse in the dam would wash away much of the broad river’s left bank, according to the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Working Group, an organization of environmental activists and experts documenting the war’s environmental effects.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s senior adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, stated that “a global ecological disaster is playing out now, online, and thousands of animals and ecosystems will be destroyed in the next few hours.”
Videos posted online began testifying to the spillover. One depicted floodwaters inundating a long roadway, while another depicted a beaver scurrying for high ground in the face of rising waters.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry called for residents of 10 villages on the Dnipro’s right bank and parts of the city of Kherson downriver to gather essential documents and pets, turn off appliances, and leave, while cautioning against possible disinformation.
Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-installed mayor of occupied Nova Kakhovka, said the city was being evacuated as water poured in.
Ukraine controls five of the six dams along the Dnipro River, which runs from its northern border with Belarus all the way down to the Black Sea and is critical to the country’s drinking water and power supply.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said in a video posted to Telegram shortly before 7 a.m. that “the Russian army has committed yet another act of terror,” and warned that water will reach “critical levels” within five hours.
Ukraine’s state hydro power generating company wrote in a statement that “The station cannot be restored.” Russia, according to Ukrhydroenergo, blew up the station from inside the engine room.
Leontyev, the Russian-appointed mayor, said Tuesday that numerous Ukrainian strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant destroyed its valves, and “water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to uncontrollably flow downstream.” Leontyev went on to say that the station’s damage was irreparable and that it would have to be rebuilt.
Ukraine and Russia have previously accused each other of attacking the dam, and Zelensky predicted in October that Russia would damage the dam in order to cause a flood.
Authorities, experts and residents have for months expressed concerns about water flows through — and over — the Kakhovka dam.
Water levels were so low in February that many feared a meltdown at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, whose cooling systems are supplied with water from the dam-held Kakhovka reservoir.
By mid-May, after heavy rains and snow melt, water levels rose beyond normal levels, flooding nearby villages. Satellite images showed water washing over damaged sluice gates.
Source: Reuters