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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/ukraine-accuses-russia-of-blowing-up-nova-kakhovka-dam-near-kherson>
"Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and an ecological
disaster has been unleashed on southern Ukraine by the collapse of a major
hydroelectric dam on the Dnipro River, which Kyiv said was blown up by Russia
in a desperate attempt to ward off a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, declared the destruction of the Nova
Kakhovka dam an “environmental bomb of mass destruction” and said only
liberating the entire country could guarantee against new “terrorist” acts.
He blamed Russian occupying forces, which have had control of the dam and the
adjacent town since last year’s full-scale invasion. “It is physically
impossible to blow it up somehow from the outside, by shelling. It was mined by
the Russian occupiers. And they blew it up,” Zelenskiy tweeted.
“This is the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.”
Satellite images of the dam in the days leading up to the collapse showed it
was in a worsening state. A picture from Monday this week showed part of the
roadway along the top missing and apparent damage to at least one sluice gate
below. CNN reported that analysis of other, lower-resolution imagery suggested
the damage had occurred between 1 and 2 June. On Tuesday, damage turned to
catastrophic failure.
Aerial footage showed the dam missing a broad mid-section with the reservoir
behind, which had been at record levels, pouring over it and roaring
downstream. Towns along its path were inundated, complete houses could be seen
floating away in the waters, while pets and wild animals scrambled to survive.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said about 16,000
people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of
the river. He said people were being evacuated and would be taken by bus to
Kherson city and then by train to Mykolaiv and other Ukrainian cities,
including Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi and Kyiv.
In Kherson city, the water level rose over 3 metres over the course of Tuesday,
and by mid afternoon was still rising by 6cm to 8cm every half hour in
low-lying areas, according to hydrologist Larysa Musian, who was taking depth
measurements on a Kherson street corner.
Relief workers on the right bank of the river had to work under fire. “The
biggest difficulty right now is not the water. It’s the Russians on the other
side of the river who are shelling us now with artillery,” said Andrew Negrych,
who was coordinating relief efforts for a US charity, Global Empowerment
Mission."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
