Kyiv, Ukraine – A major dam collapsed in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, flooding villages, endangering crops and threatening drinking water supplies as both sides of the war scrambled to evacuate residents, blaming the other for the devastation.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka Dam and hydroelectric power station, which is located on the Dnieper River in a Moscow-controlled area, more than a year ago. Russian officials blamed the Ukrainian shelling on the disputed region.
The conflicting claims could not be reconciled.
Russian and Ukrainian officials have used terms like “environmental disaster” and “act of terrorism” to describe the torrent of water rushing through the broken dam and beginning to empty an upstream reservoir, one of the largest in the world.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it “the biggest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, before an emergency meeting of the Security Council, called it “another devastating consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.
The environmental and humanitarian consequences quickly became clear as homes, streets and businesses poured downstream and emergency crews began evacuations. Officials monitored water for cooling systems at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, and authorities have expressed concern about drinking water supplies in both Ukrainian and Russian controlled areas.
In the downstream city of Kherson, angry residents cursed as they tried to preserve their pets and property. It was a woman who only mentioned her name when Titiana waded through thigh-deep water to reach her flooded house and rescue her dogs. They were standing on whatever dry surface they could find but one pregnant dog was missing. “It’s a nightmare,” she kept repeating, refusing to give her full name.
Russian and Ukrainian authorities brought in trains and buses to take the residents to safety. Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor General, Victoria Litvinova, told Ukrainian television that about 25,000 people should be evacuated in Russian-controlled areas and 17,000 in Ukrainian-controlled territories. Neither side reported any deaths or injuries.
A satellite image Tuesday morning by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the Associated Press showed more than 600 meters (more than 1,900 feet) missing from the 1950s-era dam wall.
The breach of the dam, long feared by both sides, has added a startling new dimension to the Russian war, which is now in its sixteenth month. Ukrainian forces were widely seen as pushing ahead with a long-awaited counter-offensive in patches along more than 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) of front line in the east and south.
It was not immediately clear why either side destroyed the dam, and its collapse may have been the result of gradual deterioration. Both Russian and Ukrainian controlled territories were in danger.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused Ukraine of destroying the dam to prevent possible Russian attacks in the Kherson region after what he claimed was a failed Ukrainian counterattack. He claimed Ukraine had lost 3,715 soldiers and 52 tanks since Sunday, and said – in a rare acknowledgment of Russia’s own losses – that 71 Russian soldiers had been killed and 210 wounded. Ukraine followed its standard practice of not commenting on its losses.
Zelensky told reporters that his government had information about Russia mining the dam last year, so “there may come a moment when there will be an explosion.” Other Ukrainian officials have claimed that Russia blew up the dam to impede Kiev’s counterattack, although observers note that crossing the wide Dnieper River would be very difficult. Analysts say other sectors of the front line are more likely vehicles for attack.
Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Russia’s alleged destruction of the dam is a “deep defensive measure” that shows “distrust of Russia’s long-term prospects” in the war.
Experts said earlier that the dam is in poor condition, which could also lead to a breach. David Helms, a retired American scientist who has monitored the tank since the war began, said in an email that it was not clear whether the damage was intentional or simple negligence from the Russian forces occupying the facility.
But Helms also noted a Russian history of attacking dams.
And in light of the global repercussions, wheat prices jumped 3% after the crash. It is not clear if the increase in wheat prices is due to a real threat from flood waters destroying crops. Ukraine and Russia are major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil, and other foodstuffs to Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.
Authorities, experts and residents have been concerned for months about the flow of water through – and over – the Kakhovka Dam. After heavy rains and melting of snow last month, the water level is higher than normal, causing floods in nearby villages. Satellite images showed water washing over the damaged drainage gates.
Zelensky claimed that Russian forces detonated an explosion inside the dam structure at 2:50 a.m. (2350 GMT Monday, 7:50 p.m. EST Monday) and said about 80 settlements were at risk.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as a “deliberate act of sabotage by the Ukrainian side” aimed at cutting off water to Crimea.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US “cannot definitively say what happened” and declined to say what impact the US believed it would have on the Ukraine counterattack.
Both sides warned of a looming environmental catastrophe. Ukraine’s presidential office said that about 150 metric tons of oil has leaked from the capping machines, and another 300 metric tons could still be leaked.
Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s president, released a video showing flooded streets in Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka, a city with a pre-war population of around 45,000.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has urged residents of 10 villages on the western bank of the Dnieper and parts of the city of Kherson to collect basic documents, pets, stop devices and leave.
The Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, said the city has been evacuated, and officials in other Ukrainian and Russian-controlled areas have also begun removing residents.
The World Data Center for Geospatial Information and Sustainable Development, a Ukrainian NGO, estimated that nearly 100 villages and towns would be submerged in the floods.
The Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom said via Telegram that the damage to the dam “could have negative consequences” for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, but that for now the situation was “controllable”.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency reported “no immediate safety risks” for the plant, whose reactors have been shut down for months but still need water for cooling. She said the dam’s reservoir level is dropping by 5 centimeters (2 inches) per hour and could be depleted in a few days. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the plant has alternative water sources, including a large pond that can provide water for “a few months.”
Ukrainian authorities have previously warned that a failure of the dam could unleash an amount of water roughly equivalent to that of the Great Salt Lake in the United States.
“Thousands of animals and ecosystems will be destroyed in the next few hours,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, Zelensky’s chief advisor.
The incident also drew international condemnation, including from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said the “outrageous act … once again shows the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine”.
Ukraine controls five of the six dams along the Dnieper River, which runs from its northern border with Belarus down to the Black Sea, and is critical to the country’s drinking water and energy supplies and to Russia-occupied Crimea.
Ukraine’s state hydroelectric company said the dam’s power plant “cannot be restored”. Ukrhydroenergo also claimed that Russia blew up the station from inside the engine room.
Ukraine and Russia have previously accused each other of attacking the dam.
[ad_2]
https://abc13.com/ukraine-dam-collapse-russia-war-dams-destroyed-video/13351301/
