The dam of the Pelorian hydroelectric power station, built during the Soviet Union and located in part Peninsula (southern Ukraine), controlled by Russian military forces, “exploded” on Tuesday, releasing huge amounts of water, according to the warring parties, who blame each other for destroying critical infrastructure.

At the same time, the hydroelectric power station for which the dam was built also suffered huge damage, according to the Ukrainian Hydropower Company.

Videos circulating on social media, which cannot currently be verified, show very powerful explosions at a dam in Nova Kakhovka on the Dnieper River. Other videos show how a huge amount of water pours out from under the rubble of the dam, and passers-by are shocked.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, the dam is already half destroyed and its collapse continues.

Ukrainian officials are talking about something like a tsunami that will hit the populated areas. The procedure for the evacuation of specific territories controlled by Ukrainians has already been organized, buses are sent to Nikolaev and Kherson, and at 12:00 a train will also depart to the west to evacuate flood victims.

The dam, 30 meters high and 3.2 kilometers long, was built in 1956 on the Dnieper as part of the construction of a hydroelectric power station in Novaya Kakhovka.

The huge Kakhovka dam was blown up, blocking the front line across the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine.

The flooding could lead to flooding of downstream areas, jeopardizing areas of Kherson (controlled by Ukraine) and the nearby Zaporozhye power plant (controlled by Russia). pic.twitter.com/wqDxzij0ns

— Max Seddon (@maxseddon) June 6, 2023

The Novokakhovskaya hydroelectric plant on the occupied side of the Kherson region is now “completely destroyed,” according to Ukraine’s State Agency for Hydropower, which also reported an explosion in the building’s turbine room.

The second image shows the likely consequences of the Kakhovka dam explosion, including the destruction of much of Kherson, a city that Putin declared part of Russia just nine months ago! – underwater https://t.co/lKYE8natIT

— Max Seddon (@maxseddon) June 6, 2023

After the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, a wave of water is expected to flood dozens of cities in the coming hours. pic.twitter.com/qLHDou2fv6

— BNO News (@BNONews) June 6, 2023

Its reservoir holds 18 million cubic meters of water and supplies both the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, and Europe’s largest Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which needs an uninterrupted supply to cool its reactors.

A break in the dam could flood the settlements below it, including Kherson, which Ukrainian troops recaptured at the end of 2022.

“The evacuation of settlements in the region has already begun,” said the governor of the Kherson region of Ukraine Alexander Prokhudin. “Within five hours, the water will reach a critical level,” Prokudin warned on Telegram at 06:45. [τοπική ώρα και ώρα Ελλάδας].

About 80 communities will need to be evacuated, according to the Russian state news agency TASS, with at least 22,000 residents affected by possible flooding. Mr. Prokudin, for his part, speaks of 16,000 inhabitants of the right bank, referring to the one controlled by Ukrainian forces.

Newer information speaks of a rise in water levels of five meters at the dam and the flooding of the islands of the river.

The situation at Zaporozhye NPP is under control

The Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom reported on the situation and assessed that “this may have negative consequences for the nuclear power plant, but the situation is under control.”

“An additional threat to the station is the rapidly declining water level in the reservoir. At the moment, however, the nuclear power plant’s cooling pool has been filled,” the company said.

Energoatom monitors the situation and controls the actions of the ZNPP workers together with other international organizations located at the plant, in particular the IAEA.

The corresponding update came from the relevant Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom.

Cross-categories of Ukraine and Russia

The head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, wrote on the Telegram messenger, without specifying that Russia’s actions also pose a threat to the neighboring Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

In addition, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that President Zelensky would urgently convene the said council on Tuesday after the explosion that occurred at the New Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.

” [φράγμα στην] Kakhovka was blown up by the Russian occupation forces,” the command of the southern sector of the Ukrainian army said on Facebook. The same source added that “the scale of the disaster, the speed and volume of water, as well as areas that may be flooded” are being established.

Ukraine’s intelligence services said in a statement that Russian forces destroyed the dam in a “state of panic.” They added that “this is a clear act of terrorism and a war crime that will be evidence for an international court.”

Mr. Zelenskiy himself has said that the dam explosion in the Russian-held Kherson region constitutes an “environmental crime” and “proves that Russians need to be expelled from all corners of Ukraine.”

Ukrainians fired at the dam, according to officials close to Moscow who spoke to Russian news agencies. An official stationed by Moscow in the region spoke of a “very serious terrorist attack,” terminology that also refers to the Ukrainian attack.

The Russian side even spoke of Kyiv’s actions to disorientate the Russians from the Ukrainian army’s impending counterattack, indicating that the occupying forces are worried about the battlefield response of Ukraine, now equipped with many Western weapons.

And the occupying authorities in Crimea reported that the reservoirs on the peninsula are overflowing, stressing that there are no problems in the area, which is supplied with water from the dam. However, in the medium term, the water channel in the north of Crimea is likely to “dry up,” they note.

British reaction

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, who is on an official visit to Kiev on Tuesday, said it was too early to give a meaningful assessment of who was responsible for the explosion of the New Kakhovka Dam, but certainly “the only reason that who [η διάρρηξη του φράγματος] this is an unprovoked and full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

According to Reuters, TASS, Ukrinform, Channel 5