FLASH
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After the explosion of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine's eastern Kherson region, hundreds of homes have been evacuated. A state of emergency has been declared in the Nova Kahovka district in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Kherson province after the town's dam burst, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing a decree from Moscow-appointed local authorities.
According to a statement to TASS from the mayor of the Russian-appointed city, Nova Kahovka is now flooded. Russian emergency services reported that around 600 houses had been flooded. About 16,000 people could be at risk in case of floods, claimed the former minister of Ukraine, Anton Gerashenko. The blow-up of the giant Kahovka dam in southern Ukraine, located in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Kherson region, could release 18.2 billion cubic meters of water, writes Bild newspaper.
Who blew up the dam?
The reservoir supplies water to both Ukraine's Crimean peninsula – occupied by Russia since 2014 – and the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, which needs an uninterrupted supply to cool its reactors. For this reason, the Ukrainian authorities are 'sitting' on hot coals, while the West shows that the Kremlin is behind the blowing up of the dam. "The goal of the terrorists is clear: to prevent the aggressive actions of the armed forces of Ukraine," Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said in a message to reporters. Ukraine's military intelligence service claimed for its part that Russian forces blew up the dam after being overcome by panic.
"The occupying forces blew up the dam of the Kahovka reservoir as they were in a state of panic, this is an obvious act of terrorism and a war crime, for which there will be a complaint in an international court," emphasized Podoliak. For his part, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley said today that it was too early to give a meaningful assessment of the details surrounding the destruction of a dam in southern Ukraine, but stressed that it happened only because of the Russian occupation. As the Russians and Ukraine blame each other for blowing up the dam that threatens the wider region, videos show a series of violent explosions around the Soviet-era Kakhovka dam.
"The dam in Kakhovka was blown up by the Russian occupation forces," the command of the southern sector of the Ukrainian army said on Facebook. The same source added that "the extent of the disaster, the speed and volume of the water and the areas that are likely to be flooded are being clarified".
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