Blast hits hydro-electric plant and dam, flooding south Ukraine - The Washington Post
Blast hits hydro-electric plant and dam, flooding south Ukraine - The Washington Post
KYIV, Ukraine — A critical dam in southern Ukraine was heavily damaged by an explosion early Tuesday, sending water gushing toward dozens of communities, including some occupied by Russia, and prompting officials to evacuate thousands of people at risk of catastrophic flooding.
It was not clear who was responsible for the explosion, which occurred as Kyiv stepped up offensive operations on the eastern fronts as part of what is expected to be a major counterattack over the coming weeks. Ukraine and Russia quickly traded blame for the blast.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of blowing up the hydroelectric power plant from inside.
“The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land,” Zelensky said in a message on Telegram.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the attack was “a deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side,” in part to deprive Crimea of water. “Apparently, this sabotage is related to the fact that the Ukrainian armed forces, having started the offensive two days ago, are not achieving their goals now,” Peskov said Tuesday during his daily conference call with reporters.
Ihor Syrota, the general director of Ukraine’s state hydroelectric company, Ukrhidroenergo, in an interview with The Washington Post, said the dam was “irreparable” and that the full weight of water currently held in the Kakhovka reservoir could spill out within the next four days.
It is still unclear if the lowest 20 percent of the dam is destroyed, but Syrota said it is “more than likely.” If it is completely destroyed, “then within four days, all of the water from the reservoir will flow out,” he said.
Syrota also warned about the imminent ecological consequences of the dam’s destruction. About 450 tons of oil had begun seeping from the station into the river, he said.
“It is heading toward Kherson and the Black Sea,” he said. “We understand that this will be an ecological catastrophe.”
Ukraine’s state-owned hydropower company, in a statement on Telegram, said the hydroelectric plant was “completely destroyed” as a result of an explosion inside the engine room.
Sections of the dam measuring hundreds of feet appeared to be missing, allowing large amounts of water to flow out of the reservoir.
This dam is the only river crossing in the area and serves as the source for a vital canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
Railway
Kakhovka
hydroelectric
power plant
Dnieper
River
P47
Nova
Kakhovka
P47
T2202
To the south
To Crimea
Northern
Crimean Canal
3 MILES
Sections of the dam measuring hundreds of feet appeared to be missing, allowing large amounts of water to flow out of the reservoir.
Railway
Dnieper
River
P47
Kakhovka
hydroelectric
power plant
Nova
Kakhovka
P47
This dam is the only river crossing in the area and serves as the source for a vital canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
T2202
To the south
To Crimea
Northern
Crimean Canal
3 MILES
Sections of the dam measuring hundreds of feet appeared to be missing, allowing large amounts of water to flow out of the reservoir.
Railway
Dnieper River
P47
Kakhovka
hydroelectric
power plant
Russian-built
fortifications
Nova
Kakhovka
This hydroelectric dam is the only river crossing in the area and serves as the source for a vital canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
Petropavlivka
RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED AREAS
P47
To the
south
Chornianka
T2202
To Crimea
Semenivka
Northern
Crimean
Canal
3 MILES
Sections of the dam measuring hundreds of feet appeared to be missing, allowing large amounts of water to flow out of the reservoir.
Railway
Dnieper River
P47
Kakhovka
Kakhovka hydroelectric
power plant
Lvove
Russian-built
fortifications
Nova
Kakhovka
This hydroelectric dam is the only river crossing in the area and serves as
the source for a vital canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
Petropavlivka
RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED AREAS
P47
To the
south
Chornianka
T2202
To Crimea
Semenivka
Northern
Crimean
Canal
3 MILES
Source: Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, OpenstreetMap,
Openinframap. Brady Africk, who analyzed satellite imagery from Copernicus Open Access Hub, provided fortifications
data, which does not include all fortifications in Ukraine; some defenses predate Russia’s full-scale invasion.
SAMUEL GRANADOS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Aerial videos showed heavy structural damage to the dam, which appeared to be missing sections measuring hundreds of feet. By 9 a.m., reservoir levels were rapidly decreasing as water poured out, officials said. A video shared by Ukraine’s public broadcaster appeared to show that water had almost covered the hydroelectric station.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military’s southern command, said in a radio interview that the dam was not completely destroyed but sustained serious damage. She accused the Russians of blowing up the dam using explosives to prevent Ukraine from carrying out its expected counteroffensive.
In the Russian-occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, adjacent to the dam, water levels were several feet high in front of the city council building, according to video published by Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne. Swans could be seen swimming in the water.
The former Ukrainian mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Volodymyr Kovalenko, said in an interview with The Post that the rising waters had flooded a zoo, a recreation area and a sports complex in a matter of hours. While he was not in the Russian-occupied city, Kovalenko said he spoke to residents through encrypted channels as he often does.
In the low-lying city, located on the east bank of the Dnieper River, the water some places had overflowed by about 1,600 feet from the normal shoreline. Kovalenko said he feared the water would reach residential buildings near the river, in an old part of the city made up of two-to-three story homes and cottages.
“At any moment, the water may have reached these houses,” he said.
The dam sits at the end of the Dnieper River, in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, where a reservoir stores roughly the same amount of water as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Russian occupying forces pushed the Ukrainian workers out of the plant, created a military base at the site, and, in October, cut it off from Ukraine’s electrical grid.
The fast-rising water levels threaten residents from northern Kherson, where the dam is located, down to the Black Sea. Its reservoir also supplies water, through canals, to occupied Crimea and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in Russian-controlled Enerhodar. Ukraine’s atomic energy authorities said the nuclear plant has not been affected by the dam breach so far.
Ukrainian officials blamed Russia and called the situation an ecological disaster.
“Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam inflicting probably Europe’s largest technological disaster in decades and putting thousands of civilians at risk,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. “This is a heinous war crime.”
Ukraine’s waterways
UKRAINE
RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED
AREAS
Northern
Crimean
Canal
Azov Sea
The damaged dam, which controls the flow of water to dozens of settlements, is the source for a crucial canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
CRIMEA
(Illegally annexed
by Russia in 2014)
Black sea
Ukraine’s waterways
UKRAINE
RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED
AREAS
Northern
Crimean
Canal
Azov Sea
The damaged dam, which controls the flow of water to dozens of settlements, is the source for a crucial canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
CRIMEA
(Illegally annexed
by Russia in 2014)
Black sea
Ukraine’s waterways
Dnieper river
UKRAINE
RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED AREAS
Northern
Crimean
Canal
Azov Sea
The damaged dam, which controls the flow of water to dozens of settlements, is the source for a crucial canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
CRIMEA
(Illegally annexed
by Russia in 2014)
Black sea
Ukraine’s waterways
Dnieper river
UKRAINE
RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED AREAS
Northern
Crimean
Canal
RUSSIA
Azov Sea
The damaged dam, which controls the flow of water to dozens of settlements, is the source for a crucial canal that delivers water south to Crimea.
CRIMEA
(Illegally annexed
by Russia in 2014)
Black sea
Ukrainian authorities in Kherson called for a mass evacuation while the Russian occupying authorities who still hold territory in the Kherson region east of the Dnieper River appeared to initially play down the potential consequences.
At least 1,000 people have been evacuated from Ukrainian-held areas, according to the country’s Interior Ministry. The water level had risen by more than six feet on the west bank of the river, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. He warned residents that the water may wash up Russian mines.
Vladimir Leontyev, the current mayor of Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka, said water levels have risen by 16 feet, flooding several downstream settlements. Those in the immediate vicinity of the water are being moved to dry places, he said, but “large-scale” evacuations were not expected.
“The situation is under control,” Leontyev said. “The Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was built in such a way as to be able to withstand a nuclear strike.” He said the upper part of the hydroelectric plant has been destroyed but that the dam was only partially damaged.
The Russian-installed authorities of Kherson region later announced the evacuation of residents of three districts, urging them to pack personal belongings and documents, carry food and drinking water for three days, and turn off gas and water in their homes before leaving. Earlier, the head of the Russian occupation administration of Kherson Region, Vladimir Saldo, argued that there was no need for mass evacuation.
Ukrainian authorities on the west bank, however, immediately urged residents to flee. Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukrainian head of the Kherson region, said on national television that 16,000 people were located in what he described as the “critical” danger zone on the west bank of the river.
“In five hours, the water will rise to a critical level,” Prokudin said Tuesday morning. “The evacuation of residents to safer areas has begun.”
Even as the floodwaters rose, Russian forces continued bombing Kherson city, which is controlled by Ukraine, and the surrounding areas. Two policemen from Kherson were wounded by shrapnel during evacuation measures in the city, according to Ukraine’s Internal Affairs ministry.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said up to 80 settlements downstream from the dam, in both Russian-occupied and Ukrainian-held territories, are at risk of flooding. The affected area is likely to be more than 38 square miles, according to Yevhen Korzhov from Kherson’s department of aquatic bioresources and aquaculture.
The explosion at the power plant did not directly affect the stability of the country’s energy system, according to a statement from Ukraine’s Ministry of Fuel and Energy. But it put other energy facilities in the region, including the Kherson Thermal Power Plant, at risk of flooding. In addition, about 12,000 households in Kherson’s Ostriv district were left without power.
Residents are being evacuated from Kherson city’s Ostriv district, and evacuation trains have been put in place from Kherson to the city of Mykolaiv. Shmyhal said Kyiv was trying to monitor the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
“Water is coming,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.” The situation is complicated by the fact that some roads are washed away. This makes it impossible to travel to individual settlements. Evacuation teams are looking for other ways.”
Abbakumova reported from Riga, Latvia and Korolchuk reported from Dnipro and Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
Sources: Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, OpenstreetMap, Openinframap. Brady Africk, who analyzed satellite imagery from Copernicus Open Access Hub, provided fortifications data, which does not include all fortifications in Ukraine; some defenses predate Russia’s full-scale invasion.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Russia thwarted a Ukrainian attack in the eastern Donetsk region, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said in a video published Monday by the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency. The Sunday attack targeted Russian positions along five sections of the front line in southern Donetsk, Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. His claims could not be verified.
The fight: Russia took control of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers died in the war’s longest and bloodiest battle, in late May. But holding the city will be difficult. The Wagner Group, responsible for the fight and victory in Bakhmut, is allegedly leaving and being replaced by the Russian army.
The upcoming counteroffensive: After a rainy few months left the ground muddy, sticky and unsuitable for heavy vehicles in southern Ukraine, temperatures are rising — and with them, the expectations of a long-awaited counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces.
The frontline: The Washington Post has mapped out the 600-mile front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the United States can support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.