June 7 (Portal) – A giant Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro River separating Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine was breached on Tuesday, causing flooding across the war zone.
Ukraine said Russia destroyed it, while Russia said Ukraine sabotaged it to cut off Crimea’s water supply and divert attention from a “stalled” counteroffensive.
What is the dam, what happened – and what do we not know?
THE KACHOWKA DAM
The dam, part of the Kachowka Hydroelectric Power Plant, is 30 meters (98 ft) high and 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) 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 creation of the 2,155 square kilometer Kakhovka Reservoir during Soviet times forced about 37,000 people to be displaced from their homes.
The reservoir holds 18 cubic kilometers (4.3 cubic miles) of water – a volume roughly equivalent to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah.
The reservoir also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is also under Russian control.
What happened and why was the dam broken?
Ukraine, which was the first to comment, said Russia was to blame:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station from the plant and said Russia must be held responsible for a “terrorist attack”.
“At 02:50 Russian terrorists carried out an internal demolition of the structures of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. About 80 settlements are in the flooded area,” Zelenskyy said after an emergency meeting of senior officials.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s military said Russia’s goal is to prevent Ukrainian troops from crossing the Dnipro River to attack Russian occupying forces.
[1/3] A view shows the Nova Kakhovka dam breached in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kherson region of Russian-controlled Ukraine June 6, 2023. Alexey Konovalov/TASS/Handout via Portal
Russia said Ukraine sabotaged the dam to cut off Crimea’s water supply and divert attention from its failing counteroffensive.
“We can say unequivocally that this is deliberate sabotage on the part of the Ukrainian side,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters.
Earlier, some officials deployed by Russia said there had been no attack. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian official in Zaporizhia, said the dam collapsed due to previous damage and water pressure. The Russian state news agency TASS published a similar report.
What impact will it have on the region?
As the water level continues to rise, many thousands of people are likely to be affected. Evacuations of civilians began on both sides of the front.
Maxar said satellite imagery covering more than 2,500 square kilometers (965 sq mi) between Nowa Kakhovka and the Dniprovska Gulf southwest of the Black Sea city of Kherson showed numerous flooded towns and villages.
According to estimates by Ukrainian authorities, about 42,000 people were at risk from the floods, which are expected to peak on Wednesday, including about 25,000 in the Russian-controlled areas. About 80 communities were threatened by flooding.
water supply of Crimea
The destruction of the dam risks lowering the water level of the Soviet-era North Crimean Canal, which traditionally supplies Crimea with 85% of its water needs.
Most of this water is used for agriculture, part for industry on the Black Sea Peninsula, and about a fifth for drinking water and other public uses.
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, draws its cooling water from the reservoir. It lies on the south side and is now under Russian control.
“Our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk to the safety of the facility,” said Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
He said it is important that a cooling pond remains intact as it provides enough water to cool the reactors that are shut down.
“Nothing must be done that could potentially undermine his integrity,” Grossi said.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Edited by Michael Perry and Peter Graff and Jon Boyle
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Guy Faulconbridge