Extract from ABC News
A vast Soviet-era dam in the Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine has been blown up, unleashing a flood of water across the war zone and potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Key points:
- The Nova Kakhovka Dam holds about 18 billion litres of water, and supplies Crimea as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
- Settlements near the dam, which is controlled by occupying Russian forces, are being evacuated
- Both Ukraine and Russia are blaming each other for the dam's destruction
Russia and Ukraine both blamed each other for destroying the dam, which spans the Dnieper River and powers a hydro-electric power plant, as well as supplying water to the Crimea Peninsula and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian authorities ordered hundreds of thousands of residents downriver from the dam to evacuate, labelling the destruction of the dam an "ecological disaster playing out now … and thousands of animals and ecosystems will be destroyed in the next few hours".
Water levels in surrounding areas had already increased by 10 metres in the hours following the dam's destruction, Russian-installed authorities said, and were expected to peak at 12 metres sometime over the next 72 hours before subsiding.
A Russian-installed official in the nearby town of Nova Kakhovka said half the span of the dam had been destroyed and the structure was continuing to collapse, adding it would likely be impossible to repair the dam after the blast.
The town itself was under water, Russian news agencies quoted Nova Kakhovka's mayor as saying midway through Tuesday.
Ukraine seeks UN Security Council meeting, new sanctions
Ukraine has called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the dam attack.
It also said it wanted the UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors to discuss the incident and demanded new international sanctions on Russia, in particular on the Russian missile industry and nuclear sector.
"We consider the Russian Federation's detonation of the dam … a terrorist act against Ukrainian critical infrastructure, which aims to cause as many civilian casualties and (as much) destruction as possible," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The terrorist attack on the Kakhovka HPP (hydro-electric power plant) was previously intensely discussed at the level of the occupation forces in the Kherson region and propagandists on Russian television, which indicates that it was planned in advance."
The ministry urged the international community to condemn Russia over the incident and said Moscow should pay compensation for the consequences.
"We also appeal to the countries of the Group of Seven and the EU to urgently consider the imposition of new far-reaching sanctions on the Russian Federation, in particular related to the Russian missile industry and the nuclear sector," it said.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed "Russian terrorists" for the blast.
"Tonight at 02:50, Russian terrorists carried out an internal detonation of the structures of the Kakhovskaya HPP (hydroelectric power plant)," Mr Zelenskyy said after an emergency meeting of senior officials.
He said "a set of international and security measures was agreed upon (at the meeting) to hold Russia accountable for this terrorist attack".
Ukraine's military intelligence agency said Russian forces blew up the dam "in a panic", calling it an "obvious act of terrorism and a war crime".
The hydro-electric plant had been "totally destroyed" after a detonation inside the engine room, Ukraine's state hydro-electric company said.
Russian news agencies said the dam, which is controlled by Russian forces, had been struck by Ukrainian shelling at about 11pm on Monday evening, destroying the hydraulic valves of the hydro-electric power station the dam powers.
Russia's TASS state news agency quoted an unnamed emergency source as saying the dam had been struck by munitions from an Olkha multiple missile launcher, a Ukrainian weapons system.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield accounts from either side.
Prominent Western backers of Ukraine, such as British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, declined to directly blame a specific party for the attack, but said the destruction underscored the brutality of Russia's invasion.
How serious is this attack, and will it affect Ukraine's counteroffensive?
The Kakhovka Dam, 30 metres tall and 3.2 kilometres long, was built in 1956 on the Dnieper River as part of the construction of the Kakhovka hydro-electric power plant.
It holds an 18-million-cubic-metre reservoir which also supplies water to the Crimea Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is also under Russian control.
The effects of the attack, including its potential to affect Ukraine's long-planned counteroffensive against Russian forces dug in across southern and eastern Ukraine, are not yet fully known.
However, Ukrainian authorities have previously warned that the dam’s failure could unleash all 18 million cubic metres (18 billion litres) of water and flood Kherson and dozens of other areas where hundreds of thousands of people live.
"The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified," Ukraine's southern command said on its Facebook page.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal later said up to 80 settlements were at risk of flooding.
The dam breach came as Russia said it had thwarted another Ukrainian offensive in eastern Donetsk and inflicted heavy losses. It also launched a fresh wave of overnight air strikes on Kyiv.
Ukraine said its air defence systems had downed more than 20 cruise missiles on their approach to the capital.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
No threat at nuclear plant 'for now'
Ukraine's nuclear operator Energoatom said damage to the dam "could have negative consequences" for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe's biggest and whose cooling systems are supplied with water from the Kakhovka reservoir held up by the dam.
For now, the situation was "controllable", it said.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement there was "no immediate risk to the safety of the plant", which requires water for its cooling system.
It said IAEA staff on site have been told the dam level is falling by 5 centimetres an hour.
At that rate, the supply from the reservoir should last a few days, it said.
The plant also has alternative sources of water, including a large cooling pond that can provide water "for some months", the statement said.
Russia's state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom issued a similar statement, saying the dam breach did not pose a threat to the nuclear plant "for now".
"At the moment there are no threats to the safety of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Five units are in 'cold shutdown' state, 1 in 'hot shutdown' state. The water level in the cooling pond has not changed and is 16.67 metres," said the plant's director, Yury Chernichuk.
He said the water cooling the facility's spent nuclear fuel storage pools was on a closed circuit, and had no direct contact with water coming from the Kakhovka reservoir.
Nor, he said, was the heat removal system dependent on water from the reservoir, as it could be replenished with water from "several alternative sources."
Ukraine controls five of the six dams along the Dnieper River, which runs from its northern border with Belarus down to the Black Sea and is crucial for the entire country's drinking water and power supply.
The Kakhovka Dam — the one furthest downstream in Kherson — is controlled by Russian forces.
Dam blast could threaten Crimean water supply
The canal that supplies most fresh water to Crimea could be at risk of its water level lowering.
The Soviet-era North Crimean Canal has traditionally supplied Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, with 85 per cent of its water needs.
Most of that water is used for agriculture, some for the Black Sea peninsula's industries, and around one fifth for drinking water and other public needs.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea, said on Tuesday there was no immediate threat to the peninsula's water supply or any risk of flooding due to the dam breach, but flagged a potentially serious threat ahead.
"There is a risk that the Northern Crimean Canal will get more shallow," he said.
For now though he said that Crimea's reservoirs were filled to about 80 per cent capacity and that the Northern Crimean Canal currently held around 40 million cubic metres of water.
"There is more than enough drinking water. Efforts are underway to minimise water losses in the canal," Mr Aksyonov said.
The coming days would allow officials to get a clearer picture of what was happening and the risks, he said.
The canal was blocked by Ukraine after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, something which led to acute water shortages on the peninsula that ended only after Russian forces seized the canal when they invaded on February 24 last year.
Russian officials cited restoring access to the canal as one of the advantages of what Moscow still calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
ABC/Wires
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