The consequences of the dam collapse in the Cherson region are not yet foreseeable. Several places are flooded, residents are fleeing the threatened areas. Ukraine calls for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
After the partial destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian authorities have initiated evacuations for around 17,000 people. There is a risk of flooding for areas with a total of more than 40,000 inhabitants, said Ukrainian Attorney General Andriy Kostin in online networks. The authorities are currently bringing more than 17,000 people to safety on the Ukrainian-controlled side of the Dnipro River alone.
Another 25,000 people are in danger on the side occupied by Russia, according to Kiev. Little was initially known about her fate.
The Kachowka dam on the Dnipro in Russian-occupied territory was partially destroyed in an explosion during the night. Water masses flowed unhindered from the reservoir through the wide breach in the wall and flooded many towns in the flat south of Ukraine. Both Russian and Ukrainian authorities provided trains and buses to take people out of the danger zone.
Kachowka Dam blown up
floods and evacuations
Interior Minister: 24 towns flooded
According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko, 24 towns were flooded. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal spoke of the risk of flooding for up to 80 towns. Military governor Olexander Prokudin initially reported that eight towns were completely or partially under water – including parts of the city of Cherson. Initially, there was no information about the dead or injured.
The destroyed dam is about 80 kilometers north-east of Cherson. Territories occupied by Russia are hatched.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the “biggest man-made environmental disaster in Europe for decades”. The aid organization Caritas announced that centers for flood refugees had been set up in the cities of Odessa and Mykolaiv. So far we know of 600 flooded houses, it said. The organization warned that if the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir falls below 14 meters, around 200,000 people outside the Cherson region will also face water shortages.
According to the Ukrainian energy operator Ukrhydroenergo, the hydroelectric power station on the dam was also completely destroyed. According to the Ukrainian leadership, at least 150 tons of machine oil spilled into the Dnipro River. 300 more tons of oil threatened to leak, it said on the fringes of a meeting of the National Security Council.
mutual accusations
The humanitarian, ecological and military consequences of the dam breach are not yet foreseeable. The West and Ukraine blamed Moscow for the explosion. Selenskyj compared them to the use of a weapon of mass destruction. Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mikhail Podoljak accused Russia of having “blown up” the dam.
The Kremlin, in turn, spoke of “sabotage” on the part of Ukraine. Selenskyj rejected this. “Russia has controlled the Kakhovka dam with the hydroelectric power station for over a year,” he said, according to his presidential office. “And it’s physically impossible to destroy it by shelling from outside.” The dam was mined by Russian soldiers. “And they blew it up.”
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there is no immediate danger for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
session of the UNSecurity Council required
Ukraine and Russia each called for a UN Security Council session on the dam breach. “We consider the blowing up of the dam by the Russian Federation as an act of terrorism against critical Ukrainian infrastructure,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Kyiv. Russia, on the other hand, wants to convene such a meeting, according to the RIA news agency, citing a Russian envoy. There was no confirmation from the government in Moscow.
Scholz: “New Dimension” of War
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the destruction of the Kachowka dam a “new dimension” of the war. The damage to the dam is something “that fits with the way Putin is waging this war,” he said at the Europaforum WDR. He accused Moscow of increasingly attacking civilian targets in the war that has been going on for more than 15 months.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock blamed Russia for the floods. “There is only one person responsible for this man-made environmental catastrophe: Russia’s criminal war of aggression in Ukraine,” said the Greens politician.
The federal government announced aid. Germany will stand by Ukraine, said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. Above all, one wants to help to be able to take care of evacuated people. “The THW is therefore already preparing German aid deliveries for the affected region at high pressure,” says Faeser. According to the THW, among the possible relief supplies are water filters and power generators, which are urgently needed in the affected area.
Stoltenberg: “Outrageous act”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Moscow of endangering thousands of civilians and accepting serious environmental damage. “This is an outrageous act that once again demonstrates the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine.” EU Council President Charles Michel spoke of an “unprecedented attack”, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly of a war crime.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also condemned the destruction of the Kachowka dam. “Tens of thousands of people are in a desolate situation,” said Ariane Bauer, ICRC regional director responsible for the region. “The destruction of critical infrastructure can wreak havoc on entire populations and devastate them.”
Dam commissioned in the mid-1950s
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February last year and then also occupied the Cherson region. Last fall, the Ukrainian army managed to liberate part of the region – including the regional capital of the same name, Cherson. However, towns south of the Dnipro remained under Russian control, including the dam town of Nowa Kakhovka.
The dam was commissioned in the mid-1950s. On the course of the Dnipro, it is the sixth and last barrage before the Black Sea. The system makes the flat stream navigable. It dams the water over a length of 200 kilometers between Zaporizhia and Nowa Kakhovka and holds around 18 billion cubic meters of water.