In the early hours of Tuesday, footage began to emerge of water ripping through the strategically significant Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.
Reports are mixed, and fingers have been pointed on both sides. While Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing the dam up, the local Russia-installed mayor has called it a “terrorist attack” carried out by Ukraine.
The dam lies on the Dnipro River, some 20 miles east of the city of Kherson.
Its destruction not only has repercussions for the dam itself but a number of knock-on effects for the surrounding region — many of which are already being seen in nearby towns and cities, where beavers and swans have been spotted loitering in flooded urban areas.
Most importantly, some say the dam’s wrecking could have serious implications for Ukraine’s war effort — just days after it is believed to have got its counter-offensive underway.
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In the early hours of Tuesday, footage began to emerge of water ripping through the strategically significant Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.
Reports are mixed, and fingers have been pointed on both sides. While Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing the dam up, the local Russia-installed may has called it a “terrorist attack” on the behalf of Ukraine.
The dam lies on the Dnipro river, some 20 miles east of the city of Kherson.
Its destruction not only has repercussions for the dam itself but a number of knock on effects, many of which are already being seen in nearby towns and cities, where beavers and swans have been spotted loitering in flooded streets.
Most importantly, some say the dam’s wrecking could have serious implications for Ukraine’s war effort — just days after it is believed to have got its counter offensive underway.
Nova Kakhovka dam holds back a serious volume of water from Ukraine’s Dnipro River, the third largest in Europe.
The dam, built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, is 30 metres tall and hundreds of metres wide, containing an estimated 18 cubic kilometres of water. This amounts to the same levels of water in Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
Bursting the dam will and has sent scores of floodwater into Kherson, a city that up until late 2022, Russia had held but which is now in the hands of Ukraine.
Shortly after Kyiv accused Moscow of blowing up the dam, authorities in the Kherson region warned that water levels “will reach a critical level in 5 hours”.
Many, who accept that Russia is responsible, have already labelled the action a war crime. Writing on Twitter, MEP Guy Verhofstadt said the act justified an “increase” in help for Ukraine to “free their lands”.
As well as environmental damage and degradation, the dam’s destruction could prove tricky for Ukraine’s energy supplies.
Water from the dam helps power the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, just east of Kherson. Any disruption to its flow will add to the country’s ongoing energy crisis, already at boiling point after Russia’s campaign to destroy critical infrastructure earlier this year.
It has also been suggested that the canal system that irrigates the vast majority of Ukraine, including the annexed peninsula of Crimea, will be entirely wrecked.
Jason Jay Smart, a political analyst and correspondent working in Ukraine, claimed that it will leave Crimea without “water for a decade”.
Videos posted to social media have already shown the extent of the environmental damage, something which some are now describing as “ecocide” carried out by Vladimir Putin.
Both public and private infrastructure has also been destroyed, with poorly built houses washed away by pacing floodwaters.
Ukraine military intelligence has said that “the scale of the ecological disaster [would] go far beyond the borders of Ukraine and affect the entire Black Sea region”.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson region, told Ukrainian TV that eight villages had been fully or completely flooded already, with more expected to be affected as the day goes on.
Ukrainian hydropower dam operator UkrHydroEnerho said the station was “fully destroyed” and could not be restored.
Some 150 tonnes of industrial lubricant has also contaminated the river, according to President Volodymyr Zelenksy. He said another 300 tonnes were at risk of leaking.
The exact cause of the dam’s destruction is not yet clear. Some say it is plausible that Moscow would attack it to prevent Ukraine from using the road that travelled over the dam to get troops across the river and into Russian-held territory.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, denied Russian involvement. He blamed Ukraine, calling it an act of “sabotage” that would starve the Crimean peninsula of water. Neither side’s claims have yet been verified.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant lies just 100 miles upstream, with fears that the floodwaters could reach the station. For now, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says there is no risk. It is, however, monitoring the situation.
