The dam busters
Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for sabotage as millions of tons of water burst through giant dam on Dnipro River in heart of war zone
A torrent of water burst through a massive dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, flooding a vast tract of the war zone and forcing villagers to flee.
Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam in a deliberate war crime. The Kremlin said Ukraine had sabotaged the dam, to distract attention from the launch of a major counteroffensive Moscow says is faltering.
Some Russian-installed officials said the dam had collapsed on its own. Neither side offered evidence of who was to blame. The Geneva Conventions explicitly ban targeting dams in war because of the danger to civilians. By mid-morning in the city of Kherson in Ukrainian government-controlled territory downstream from the dam, a pier on a tributary of the Dnipro had already been submerged.
Lidia Zubova, 67, waiting for a train out of the city after abandoning her inundated village of Antonivka, said: “Our local school and stadium downtown were flooded. “The road was completely
flooded, our bus got stuck.” Ukrainian police released video of an officer carrying an elderly woman to safety and others rescuing dogs in villages being evacuated as the waters rose.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko accused Russia of shelling areas from where people were being evacuated and said two police officers were wounded.
On the Russian-controlled bank of the Dnipro, the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka said water levels had risen to 11 meters.
Residents said many had decided to stay despite being ordered out by occupying Russians.
“They say they are ready to shoot without warning,” said one man, Hlib. “If you come a meter closer than allowed, they immediately start yelling obscenities.”
The Kazkova Dibrova zoo on the Russian-held riverbank was completely flooded and all 300 animals died.
The small town of Oleshky, also on the Russian-controlled bank of the Dnipro, was almost completely flooded.
The dam supplies water to a wide area of southern Ukrainian farmland, including the Russianoccupied Crimean Peninsula, as well as cooling the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
The vast reservoir behind the dam is one of the main geographic features of southern Ukraine, 240 km long and up to 23 km wide. Ukraine and Russia have both asked the UN Security Council to meet to discuss the dam. Ukraine accused Russia of an “ecological and technological act of terrorism,” while Russia described it as an “act of sabotage carried out by Ukraine.”