The Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has said the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP is the largest man-made disaster in the world in recent decades.
According to him, it is killing the environment and will negatively affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the coming years.
To him, While Putin is in the Kremlin, the humanity is in danger. Russia must be recognized as a terrorist state throughout the world.
To the Ukrainian government official, Russia is waging a genocidal war against the Ukrainian people, seeking to kill as many Ukrainians as possible and make the lives of the rest unbearable. “Environmental disasters are never confined to national borders, it is always an international problem. And the world must unite to stop the ecoterrorist — the Kremlin.”
Russian aggression against Ukraine has continued for more than a year and is accompanied by large-scale crimes against the environment of Ukraine, an ecocide.
“On the morning of June 6, 2023, Russian invaders detonated explosives planted in the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant (HPP), the flooding of the territories downstream of the Dnipro began. Any attempts to accuse Ukraine of sabotage are absurd. Russians mined the dam and blew it up”, he said
According to Ukrhydroenergo, the operator of the hydro power plant, as a result of the internal explosion of the turbine hall, Kakhovka HPP was completely destroyed and cannot be restored. The destruction of the dam of the Kakhovka HPP is a man-made disaster caused by the Russian soldiers.
“Flooding of huge areas occurred rapidly, within a few hours. More than 80 settlements are in the flood zone, including some districts of Kherson. Evacuation and rescue of the civilian population are continued. The residents of the low left bank of the Dnipro, who are under Russian occupation, will suffer the greatest damage from the flooding. In total, about 16,000 people on the right bank of the Kherson region are in the critical zone.
“Earlier, the occupiers threatened to blow up the dam and blackmailed that they would do it to prevent the Ukrainian counteroffensive. In autumn 2022, they damaged a part of the dam for the first time, which led to a decrease in the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir.
“Kyiv publicly warned about the threat of the tragedy back in autumn 2022. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally informed the European Council and called for an international observation mission at the facility. The possible purpose of the terrorist act is to flood the islands in the downstream of the Dnipro, which were liberated the day before by the Ukrainian Defence Forces to prevent further counteroffensive on the left bank. The Russians are ready to turn the theatre of hostilities into a zone of natural disaster only to restrain the liberation of Ukrainian lands, or not to leave anything to the liberators.
“Another likely reason is the desire to inflict maximum damage on Ukraine in conditions where the occupiers have lost hope of maintaining their control over the south of Ukraine.
“The Russian terrorist attack will have long-term economic and environmental consequences for Ukraine (thousands of animals and ecosystems will be destroyed). According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the normal water level in the Kakhovka reservoir is 16 metres. A drop to 14.5 metres would lead to possible problems with irrigation in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Kherson regions. A drop to 14 metres and below would leave more than 200,000 residents of the cities of Nikopol, Marhanets and the surrounding areas without drinking water. A drop to 13.2 metres and below will pose a threat of a nuclear disaster due to the cessation of cooling at ZNPP reactors. A drop to 13.1 metres and below will leave another 1 million Ukrainians without drinking water. A massive pestilence of fish, birds and other species of fauna will begin, which will threaten the epidemiological situation in the Black Sea region. A drop to 13 metres would leave 40,000 residents of the town of Pokrov without access to drinking water. Lowering to 12.7 metres and below will lead to an environmental catastrophe – the destruction of biodiversity not only in the Kakhovka reservoir but also in the surrounding areas. Putting the Kakhovka HPP out of action stop the supply of water to Crimea through the North Crimean Canal. Due to the destruction of the dam, there is a risk of flooding of power facilities in the Kherson region, including Kherson CHPP.
“The world is on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe again. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which located higher up the Dnipro River, may lose may lose access to river water, which is a source of cooling for nuclear reactors. Currently, the situation is under control.
“The man-made disaster at the Kakhovka HPP is tantamount to the use of weapons of mass destruction, the world should treat and react to it in the corresponding way. The Kremlin continues the campaign of ecocide in Ukraine. On the eve of the terrorist attack on the Kakhovka HPP, on the International Day of Environmental Protection on June 5, the invaders damaged the ammonia pipeline in Kharkiv Oblast,” he said
