2023-06-06 14:48:10
Russians and Ukrainians blame each other for the incident at the New Kakhovka dam, which is in the Moscow-occupied portion of Kherson, in southern Ukraine.
IGOR GIELOW
SAO PAULO-SP
In one of the most dramatic incidents in Ukraine’s 15-month war, a vital dam in the Russian-invaded south of the country was destroyed in the early hours of Tuesday. Thousands of people have begun to evacuate due to the flooding, and the action threatens to affect Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.
Russians and Ukrainians blame each other for the incident at the New Kakhovka dam, which is in the Moscow-occupied portion of Kherson in southern Ukraine.
It is not clear what happened, whether a planned explosion like Kiev accused the invaders of planning for months or, as the invaders say, an artillery attack during the counter-offensive launched by the government of Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday (4).
From a tactical point of view, the destruction favors the Russians, as it floods the entire area from Nova Kakhovka (or Novaia Kakhovka, in Russian spelling) to the mouth of the Dnieper River, which had been dammed since 1956 to generate energy and supply electricity. water to Crimea through a canal. The power plant at the site was completely flooded, according to images on social networks.
Thus, if the Ukrainians planned offensive actions across the river, something military analysts doubted, they would not be able to do so now. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the attack threatened to cut water supplies to Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Vladimir Putin in response to the overthrow of a Kremlin-friendly government in Kiev.
For him, this was the motivation for what he called “Ukraine sabotage”. At least 16,000 people live on the eastern banks of the Dnieper, the side that was retaken by Kiev at the end of the year. The eponymous capital of Kherson, 30km to the west, is under pre-emptive evacuation as well, and the local government accuses Russia of bombing the city in the process.
CONTINUE AFTER ADVERTISING
Zelensky had an emergency meeting with his security council and blamed the Russians. “That night, at 2:50 am (20:50 on Monday in Brasilia), Russian terrorists caused an internal explosion in the structures of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. Around 80 locations are in the flood zone,” he said.
The UN office in Ukraine condemned the action, without assigning blame. “Civil infrastructure is not a target,” she said in a Twitter post. NATO (Western military alliance) and the European Union, of course, condemned Russia for what they called a “barbaric act”.
According to the Kherson occupation government, the river level has risen by up to 10 meters, and Nova Kakhova is under water. Governor Vladimir Saldo says that the destruction he said the volume of water along the affected area will not be so great. “A large-scale evacuation is not necessary. This will not stop Russian forces from securing the left bank. [ocidental]”, he stated.
Also at risk is the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is 120 km upriver. Water from the Kakhovka reservoir guaranteed the cooling of its six reactors, five of which have been shut down since last year.
CONTINUE AFTER ADVERTISING
According to administrators, there is no danger now, but if there is a need to cool the remaining reactor, there could be problems if the water level drops considerably – and it has already dropped 2.5 meters. “Lack of cooling water for a long period would cause melting of fuel.
But our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk,” said the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi.
This is all unfathomable now, but it led to accusations of nuclear terrorism by Kiev this morning. Zaporizia has been a hotbed of tensions, with mutual accusations of bombings and attacks in the region, and Argentina’s Grossi has already been there to assess the risks.
The destruction of the dam and power plant had been rumored since the Russians left the east bank of the Dnieper to take defensive positions across the river in November. Since then, residents of the western bank have been relocated to more distant areas of the bank, which were fortified.
CONTINUE AFTER ADVERTISING
But there is, beyond the accusation of humanitarian catastrophe and nuclear risk, a real problem for Russia. The Kakhovka reservoir, with a maximum capacity of 18 cubic km [Itaipu, no Brasil, tem 29 km cúbicos] feeds the Northern Crimean Canal, a structure completed in 1976 by the Soviets to irrigate the peninsula below.
In 2014, after the annexation, Kiev dammed the canal, making life difficult for residents of the region. Once they took Kherson, at the beginning of the war in 2022, the Russians destroyed the obstruction and the canal began to flow again. Now the situation is uncertain, although the Kremlin said this morning that “measures have been taken” to ensure the branch works.
In any case, the action affects Zelensky’s eventual plans to operate in the region. Throughout the night, the Russians carried out several missile attacks launched by Tu-95 bombers against targets in Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and other Ukrainian cities.
CONTINUE AFTER ADVERTISING
There have still been no reports of fighting overnight or this morning, after two days in which Moscow says it has repelled evidentiary attacks on its front lines, killing 1,500 Ukrainians – figures denied by the Zelensky government.
CONTINUE AFTER ADVERTISING
#Destruction #dam #creates #chaos #threatens #nuclear #plant #Ukraine