Hydroelectric plant collapses in southern Ukraine
June 6, 2023
On Tuesday, the hydroelectric power plant in Nova Kakhovka — a city in southern Ukraine — collapsed, causing a breach of the dam. The Nova Kakhovka Dam is the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume.
The collapse reportedly caused flooding that resulted in mass evacuations across the Kherson Oblast.
The collapse occurred just as Ukraine was “planning for a counter-offensive,” according to CNN.
According to John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, the White House is currently monitoring the situation but “has not yet concluded if Russia is behind the collapse or if it was intentional.”
In a statement published by CNN, Ukrainian military officials said that “Russian terrorists carried out an internal explosion of the structures of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.”
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The Kremlin denies any involvement with the collapse, theorizing that it was a strategic move by the Ukrainian government.
“We decidedly reject incrimination in the flooding of the hydroelectric dam in Nova Kakhovka,” said Dmitriy Peskov, press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement originally published in Russian to Moscow government owned newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.
“This was a premeditated diversion by Kiev,” Peskov said. “One of the goals (of premeditating this) was to block … the flow of water through the North Crimean Canal.”
According to BBC coverage of the incident, “it’s unclear when exactly the dam was first damaged, but satellite images suggest its condition has deteriorated over a number of days.”
