The extent of destruction following the Kachowka dam explosion is enormous. The consequences for the population and environment in the area of southern Ukraine are dramatic.
After the collapse of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River and severe damage to the adjacent power plant in southern Ukraine, mass evacuations in the flooded areas are in full swing.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of causing chaos through an explosion or targeted bombing. The consequences for people and nature are catastrophic, but the full extent is not yet fully predictable.
“Environmental Bomb of Mass Destruction”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made serious accusations against Moscow without providing any proof: “The whole world will know about this Russian war crime, the crime of environmental murder. The deliberate destruction of the dam and other power plants by the Russian occupation forces is a bomb of mass destruction. For the sake of its own security, the world should now show that Russia cannot get away with such terror.”
The ruins of the dam and hydroelectric plant have been in an area controlled by Russian troops for over a year. The course of the river roughly corresponds to the front line.
On both sides of the Dnieper, Ukrainian and Russian forces are trying to get people out of the danger zone. So far, however, only a few thousand people have been brought to safety.
Ukrainian Ivan waded his mother’s belongings through floodwaters in his town in the Kherson region. He vented: “I walk around in shorts and a T-shirt, thanks to our brothers, dammit. They are just crazy animals. Sorry for the expression. My mom is 80 and I have to wear her last underwear and sheets. B**** Wanna wrap them all in these sheets.”
land mines in the water
Several dozen cities are threatened by flooding or are already submerged. According to media reports, there have already been several landmine explosions that have been dragged. Experts agree that the greatest danger is serious environmental damage.
Entire extensions of land, as well as drinking and service water, can be contaminated and, after the water bodies run off, the affected areas are threatened with desertification, which could make agriculture unfeasible in the long term.