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The Nova Kakhova Dam was destroyed causing flooding to hit the Kherson region. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for this incident. Photo/via Ukrainian Presidential Office
OIL – Nova Kakhova Dam in Kherson, a region controlled by the force Russia, destroyed on Tuesday (6/6/2023). It caused the Kherson region to be flooded, during which tens of thousands of people were evacuated.
The dam is what supplies Ukraine south and Crimea, a territory controlled by Russia since 2014, by water.
The dam’s collapse also threatens the nearby nuclear power plant (PLTN).
Drone footage originally published by pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine bloggers shows the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam, where water flows freely downstream.
The 30-metre-high, 3.2-kilometre-long Kakhovka Dam, which holds a large reservoir on the Dnipro River and is part of a hydroelectric plant, has been a site of constant tension during the 15 months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to verified video footage, the streets of Neftehavan district, Kherson, have been flooded. The water is seen rising even though the district is tens of miles from the dam.
Ukraine blames Russia for the destruction of the massive dam. Ukraine’s Attorney General Andriy Kostin said it had opened a war crimes investigation following the incident.
According to him, the prosecutor’s office is gathering information with the team on the ground and they will provide all the details to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
“About 1,500 people have been evacuated from the area,” he told the BBC. Moments earlier, he said in a tweet that more than 17,000 people had been evacuated from the flooded areas.