Following Russia’s withdrawal from the nearby city of Kherson, extensive new damage to a large dam in Novaya Kakhovka in southern Ukraine can be seen, Reuters reported on Friday, using Maxar satellite images.

Damage to the Nova Kakhovka dam – Maxar space imagePhoto: Handout / AFP / Profimedia

Maksar noted that several bridges across the Dnipro River were also damaged in the pictures taken on Friday. In the center of Kherson, after Russia left the city, the Ukrainian troops were greeted joyfully by the residents.

“Satellite images this morning … show significant new damage to several bridges and the Novaya Kakhovka dam as a result of Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson across the Dnipro River,” Maxar said in a statement.

  • VIDEO The Antoniv bridge across the Dnipro collapsed

It said parts of the north side of the dam and locks were “deliberately destroyed”.

Satellite images released by Maxar show damage at the Nova Kakhova Dam / Handout PHOTO / AFP / Profimedia

Earlier this week, Russia accused Ukraine of bombing the dam.

Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of plans to breach the dam with explosives, which would flood much of the area downstream and likely cause significant destruction around Kherson.

Kherson was the only regional capital to be captured by Russia after its forces invaded Ukraine in late February.

More than 30,000 Russian troops have retreated from the eastern bank of the Dnieper, according to a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense published by the Interfax news agency.

“All personnel, weapons and military equipment of the group have been moved to the left bank [estic]. In total, more than 30,000 Russian military personnel, about 5,000 units of weapons and military equipment, as well as material assets, were withdrawn,” the report says.

On October 20, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated at a meeting of the European Council that he had information that Russia would prepare an attack under a false flag by mining the Novaya Kakhovka dam, speaking of a possible “disaster of historic scale.”

According to Zelenskyi, the dam holds about 18 million cubic meters of water, and if it were to blow up, it would quickly flood 80 settlements, including Kherson:

  • “Hundreds of thousands of people may be affected. The water supply of a large part of the south of the country may be destroyed. Zaporizhzhia NPP may not have enough water for cooling systems. Even the operation of the canal that feeds Crimea, which I tell the Russians that I care about, will be compromised “.