The Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s Kherson region (south), which is occupied by Russian forces, was “damaged” after a Ukrainian strike on Sunday, regional emergency services told Russian news outlets.
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“Today [dimanche]by 10 o’clock [8 h GMT]six HIMARS rockets were launched. Anti-aircraft units shot down five of them, including one that hit the lock at the Kakhovka dam, which was damaged,” said a representative of the rescue services, quoted by Russian authorities.
Two weeks ago, Kyiv accused Moscow of “undermining the dam,” which the Russian occupation authorities said would be “a lie.”
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The Kakhovka Dam, which was built at the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, enables in particular the water supply of the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The plant, built in 1956 during the Soviet era on the Dnieper, is partly made of concrete and earth.
It is one of the largest infrastructures of this type in Ukraine.
For several days, the Russian occupation authorities have been conducting “evacuations” of civilians from the surrounding villages in the face of a “possible missile attack” on the Kakhovka dam, whose destruction led to “flooding of the left bank of the Dnieper, according to Moscow-installed Kherson regional governor Vladimir Balance.
If the dam erupts, “more than 80 towns, including Kherson, will find themselves in the rapid flood zone,” Zelensky warned the Council of the European Union on Oct. 21.
“It could destroy the water supply for a large part of southern Ukraine” and affect the cooling of the reactors at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which draws its water from this 18 million cubic meter artificial lake, he had warned.
Ukraine had requested an international observation mission.
Kakhovka is about 60 km east of Kherson as the crow flies and was the first major city to fall to the Russians in March.