Russia Destroyed Dam in Ukraine: Biggest Ecological Disaster in Decades
Credit: Unsplash
On Tuesday, Ukraine leveled serious accusations against Russian forces, claiming that they had intentionally blown up a major dam and hydroelectric power station in southern Ukraine, which is currently under Russian control. This act caused a breach in the facility, releasing a torrent of water and posing a significant risk of massive flooding. In response, Ukrainian authorities swiftly ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents downstream.
Russia, however, denied the allegations and instead pointed fingers at Ukraine’s military, asserting that they were responsible for damaging the Nova Kakhovka Dam. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flatly rejected this claim, stating that it would have been impossible for the facility, which has been under Russian control for several months, to be destroyed from the outside.
While local Moscow-installed officials downplayed the severity of the situation, Ukrainian authorities warned of the potential wide-ranging consequences of the breach. These included flooding of homes, streets, and businesses downstream, depletion of water levels upstream crucial for cooling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, and the draining of drinking water supplies in Crimea, which Russia controversially annexed in 2014.
LIVE UPDATES: Major dam destroyed in southern Ukraine.
• Thousands evacuate flooded Kherson
• Residents warned of floating mines and threat of disease
• Entire neighborhoods in the region are underwaterhttps://t.co/gdUJmYh7U4📸 Libkos / AP pic.twitter.com/kntLCg7vUT
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 7, 2023
The dam’s destruction added a complex new dimension to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, now in its 16th month. Ukrainian forces were seen as preparing for a counteroffensive along various points of the front line, spanning over 600 miles in the eastern and southern regions of the country.
President Zelenskyy called for an emergency meeting of Ukraine’s security and defense council immediately following the dam explosion. In a statement released afterward, his office accused Russian forces of detonating the dam and hydroelectric power plant “from inside” just before dawn. The president and his advisors agreed on a range of international measures, including convening a meeting of the U.N. Security Council and appealing to international environmental organizations and the International Criminal Court due to the clear violations of the Geneva Convention.
russia's destruction of the Kakhovka Dam is a truly horrific act of terrorism and ecocide. Sickening evil on a massive scale. Give Ukraine everything. Stop russian terrorism pic.twitter.com/C8ztZyINL2
— Paul Massaro (@apmassaro3) June 6, 2023
According to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, more than 40,000 people were at risk of flooding, with over 17,000 already evacuated from affected areas. Moscow-controlled authorities in the region claimed that the dam had been partially destroyed by multiple strikes launched by Ukrainian forces overnight, resulting in an uncontrollable surge of water.
President Zelenskyy, however, remained resolute in his stance, emphasizing that Russia had been in control of the dam and the entire hydroelectric power plant for over a year. He refuted the possibility of external damage and instead accused Russian occupiers of mining and detonating the facility. Zelenskyy described the event as the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades and labeled Russia’s actions as the most dangerous form of terrorism.
