Since the early hours of Tuesday morning, news has spread that the strategically important Nova Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine has been destroyed and that water has flooded the area. The southern military command of the Ukrainian army reported that Russian forces blew up the dam, while the local mayor, appointed by Russia, described the event as a terrorist act.
The Nova Kakhovka Dam collapsed due to unknown shelling that took place overnight from Monday to Tuesday, and its destruction may have serious repercussions for the surrounding region and the current war efforts in Ukraine. The dam is located on the Dnieper River, approximately 20 miles east of the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine. Built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station, the dam spans the massive Dnieper River with a height of 30 meters and a width of 3,273 meters. The dam has a water reservoir with a capacity of 18 cubic kilometers. The explosion of the dam resulted in flooding of hundreds of surrounding areas, including Kherson, which Ukrainian forces partially recaptured in late 2022. The reservoir supplies cooling water to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe.
The British newspaper "The Guardian" reported that the dam's reservoir is estimated to contain 18 cubic kilometers of water, equivalent to the size of the Great Salt Lake in the U.S. state of Utah. Since the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, the Nova Kakhovka Dam has been classified as a potential target due to its strategic importance, in addition to the damage that would result from its destruction. Russia seized control of it at the start of the war in February 2022 and has maintained control ever since. However, in October, while Ukraine was in the midst of reclaiming large parts of the Kherson region previously controlled by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the West to warn Russia against blowing up the dam, warning that it would flood a large area of southern Ukraine. At that time, it was said that Russian forces had planted explosives inside the dam, stating that "the destruction of the dam would mean a widespread catastrophe," comparing such an act to the use of weapons of mass destruction. Ukrainian military intelligence stated that "the scale of the environmental catastrophe would exceed the borders of Ukraine and affect the entire Black Sea region." After Ukraine regained control of Kherson in November, images of significant damages to the dam emerged, while Moscow accused Kyiv of shelling the dam as part of its campaign to reclaim Kherson. In May, residents of a nearby village reported flooding that they blamed on Russian control of Nova Kakhovka. Local residents told Reuters that water levels began to rise in April, reaching 30 centimeters per day, and have remained high since then.
