The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, located in the Russian-occupied areas of Kherson region in southern Ukraine, was partially destroyed on Tuesday, with Moscow and Kiev accusing each other of responsibility.
Several villages were “completely or partly” flooded in Ukraine after the partial destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper River in the Russian-occupied region of Kherson (south), and residents began to be evacuated, said a Ukrainian official announced on Tuesday.
“About 16,000 people are in the critical zone,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson region military administration, on social media.
Ukrainian forces carried out ‘multiple strikes’ on the Kakhovka dam overnight Monday-Tuesday, Nova Kakhovka town mayor Vladimir Leontiev said on Telegram, claiming they had destroyed the gate valves of the dam and caused an “uncontrollable discharge of water”.
“The dam is not destroyed and it is an immense happiness”, he however assured.
For its part, the Ukrainian army accused in a press release Russia of having organized an explosion on the dam. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urgently convened his security council, announced the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak, on Telegram, denouncing a “war crime”.
Evacuations in progress
The rise in water was observed in several localities located near the dam without the situation becoming critical, according to the administration of the Kherson region, installed by Russia.
“If necessary, we are ready to evacuate the inhabitants of the neighboring villages”, declared in a statement on Telegram the head of the government of the Kherson region, Andrey Alekseyenko, stressing however that their life is not threatened. and calling for “not to panic”.
However, a few minutes later, Ukraine announced that it was evacuating residents.
The Kakhovka dam, taken at the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, notably makes it possible to supply water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Moscow.
Laid out on the Dnieper River in 1956, during the Soviet period, the work is built partly of concrete and earth.
It is one of the largest infrastructures of this type in Ukraine.
Source: Le Progrès : info et actu nationale et régionale – Rhône, Loire, Ain, Haute-Loire et Jura | Le Progrès by www.leprogres.fr.
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