Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russia of blowing up the Soviet-era Nova Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region, which is occupied by Russia, resulting in widespread flooding in Southern Ukraine. According to Reuters, the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russian forces blew up the dam. Water gushed from the dam after Kyiv accused Moscow of blowing it up, as reported by AP. Russia has claimed to have thwarted another Ukrainian offensive in eastern Donetsk and inflicted heavy losses.
Russia launched fresh air strikes overnight on Kyiv and on the other hand the war-torn country has said that its air defence systems have brought down more than 20 cruise missiles.
The dam was built in 1956 on the Dnipro River. It is 30 metres tall and 3.2 km long. It holds water equal to that in the Great Salt Lake in the U.S. state of Utah and also supplies water to Crimea. The dam was annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control. “The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the Ukrainian military said on Facebook, as quoted by Reuters.
According to Russian news agencies, the dam was destroyed by shelling, and the mayor of Russia-controlled Nova Kahhovka city was quoted as blaming an act of terrorism.
There was no “critical danger” to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia facility which is Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Russia’s TASS state agency reported citing a Moscow-backed official in the region. The evacuation near the dam has begun and that water would reach critical levels within five hours, Russia’s head of the Kherson region said.
Following the dam blast, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold an emergency meeting, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Oleksiy Danilov said on Twitter on Tuesday.
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