A dam burst in Russian-occupied Ukraine, flooding the city; risk of ecological damage

KYIV: The wall of a large dam in a part of southern Ukraine controlled by Moscow collapsed on Tuesday after an alleged explosion, sending water downstream and prompting dire warnings of ecological damage as the war Officials on both sides ordered residents to evacuate. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and hydroelectric power station, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian military attacks in the disputed area.

The fallout can have far-reaching consequences: flooding of homes, roads and businesses downstream; receding water levels upstream that help cool Europe’s largest nuclear power plant; and the draining of drinking water supplies to the south in Crimea, which Russia had illegally annexed. The dam breach added a surprising new dimension to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, which is now in its 16th month. Ukrainian forces were widely seen advancing in patches along more than 1,000 kilometers of the border line in Ukraine’s east and south with a long-anticipated counteroffensive.

It was not immediately clear whether the damage to the dam benefits both sides, as both Russian-controlled and Ukrainian-held land is at risk of flooding. The damage could potentially hinder Ukraine’s retaliatory offensive in the south, while at the same time Russia relies on the dam to supply water to the Crimea region it illegally annexed in 2014.

Amid official outcry, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had called an urgent meeting of the National Security Council. He alleged that Russian forces blew up inside the dam structure at 2.50 am (2350 GMT) and said some 80 settlements were at risk. Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom said in a Telegram statement that damage to the dam “could have negative consequences” for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe’s largest, but wrote that the situation was ‘controlled’ for now .

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that there was “no immediate risk to the safety” of the plant, which requires water for its cooling system. It said IAEA staff on site have been told that the level of the dam is falling at 5 centimeters per hour. At that rate, the supply from the reservoir should last for a few days, it said.

The plant also has alternative water sources, including a large cold pond, which could provide water for a few months, the statement said. Ukrainian authorities previously warned that a dam failure could release 18 million cubic meters of water and flood Kherson and dozens of other regions where hundreds of thousands of people live.

The World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development, a Ukrainian NGO, estimated that about 100 villages and towns would be inundated. It was also estimated that the water level would start receding only after five-seven days. A total collapse in the dam would wash out the wider river left bank, according to the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Working Group, an organization of environmental activists and experts documenting the war’s environmental effects.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that ‘a global ecological disaster is happening online now, and thousands of animals and ecosystems will be destroyed in the next few hours.’ Videos posted online began to testify to the spillover. one showed flood waters submerging a long road; Another showed a beaver scrambling for higher ground from rising water.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry called on residents of 10 villages on the Dnipro’s right bank and parts of the Kherson downriver city, to collect necessary documents and pets, turn off equipment and warn against possible disruption. The Russian-installed mayor of occupied Novaya Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, said the town was being evacuated as water poured in.

Ukraine controls five of the six dams along the Dnipro, which runs from its northern border with Belarus to the Black Sea and is vital to the entire country’s supply of drinking water and electricity. The head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Alexander Prokudin, said in a video posted on Telegram shortly before 7 a.m. that “the Russian army has committed another act of terror,” and warned that the water had reached “critical levels.” will go? within five hours.

Ukraine’s state hydroelectric power generation company wrote in a statement that ‘the station cannot be restored.’ Ukrhydroenergo also claimed that the Russians blew up the station from inside the engine room. Russia-appointed mayor Leontiev said on Tuesday that several Ukrainian attacks on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant destroyed its valves, and “water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to flow uncontrollably downstream.”

Leontiev stated that the damage to the station was beyond repair, and would have to be rebuilt. Ukraine and Russia have previously accused each other of targeting the dam with attacks, and last October Zelensky predicted that Russia would destroy the dam to cause flooding. Officials, experts and residents have raised concerns for months about water flowing ‘over and above’ the Kakhovka Dam.

In February, the water level was so low that many feared a meltdown at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, whose cooling system is supplied with water from the Kakhovka reservoir held by the dam. By mid-May, after heavy rains and snow melt, the water level rose above normal levels, flooding nearby villages.