Destroyed Ukrainian dam floods war zone, forcing residents to flee
A major dam on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine was destroyed Tuesday morning, sending streams of water pouring through the breach, flooding a war zone downriver, endangering tens of thousands of residents and increasing the likelihood of long-term environmental and humanitarian disaster.
Ukraine and Russia quickly blamed each other for the disaster. Officials in Kiev said Moscow troops blew up the Russian-controlled dam in the early hours, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine pointed the finger at “Russian terrorists”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov denied any Russian involvement and described the destruction as “sabotage”.
It was not immediately clear who or what had caused the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station near the town of Nova Kakhovka. But some top European officials denounced Russia. Engineering and ordnance experts said a deliberate explosion in the dam most likely caused the collapse. Structural failure or an outside attack, they said, were possible but less likely.
The dam’s destruction was a “monumental humanitarian, economic and environmental catastrophe” and “another example of the horrific cost of war to human beings,” said António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General.
The dam, in the Kherson region, had held back a body of water the size of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Ihor Syrota, the head of Ukrhydroenergo, Ukraine’s main hydropower plant, said in an interview that it had collapsed after an explosion at about 2:50 a.m. on Tuesday.
“The damage is massive and the station cannot be repaired,” he said. “The lower part of it has already washed away.”
Residents of the town of Antonivka, some 40 miles downstream, described watching in horror as the flood waters were swept away, carrying trees and debris from washed-out homes. Ukrainian authorities rushed to evacuate people by train and bus.
For miles along the floodplain, others waded through the water to rescue pets and belongings, videos and images posted on social media showed. Some people cycled through streets that were submerged in muddy water. In Mykolaiv, an emergency train gathered those fleeing the rising waters in Kherson.
Daria Shulzik, 38, an office manager, woke up to what sounded like pouring rain, but it was running water filled with the city’s garbage. There was “a lot of dirt, branches, parts of buildings, fences, cattails from swamps — everything,” she said.
Ms. Shulzik said that the Russian army had caused a disaster. “I don’t know why they started this war and why they continue,” she said. “Agriculture will suffer, and the Black Sea will suffer, because all this flows into the sea. Even the fish will now suffer.”
About 16,000 people in total remained in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled western bank of the river, said Oleksandr Prokudin, the regional military administrator. The National Police of Ukraine said 23 towns and villages had been flooded so far and the water level in the Dnipro in the city of Kherson had risen by almost 3 meters. By 9 p.m. local time, at least 1,366 people had been evacuated from flooded areas, police said on the Telegram messaging app.
The destruction came a day after US officials said they had discovered what could be the start of Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive to repel Russian forces east of the Dnipro in the Donetsk region. The Russian army said it repelled several attacks by Kiev’s troops.
Sergei K. Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, accused Ukraine of destroying the dam because it wanted to move troops and equipment defending Kherson to other parts of the front to aid in its counteroffensive. Ukraine said Russia blew up the dam to prevent Ukrainian troops from crossing the river downstream.
The dam, the southernmost on the Dnipro, was built between 1950 and 1956 as part of a wider effort to capitalize on the economic strength of the river known as the ‘Great Dnipro’. It was downstream from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which relies on the Kakhovka reservoir to cool its reactors.
Initially, there was concern that if the river level dropped far enough, the power station, Europe’s largest civilian nuclear facility, would be unable to draw water, possibly leading to a meltdown. But Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear company Energoatom said in a statement that while the destruction could have “negative consequences” for the Zaporizhzhia power station, it had enough water from a nearby pond to cool down for now.
“The situation is under control,” the statement said.
Experts were still waiting to understand the full scope of the disaster. Videos verified by The New York Times and images posted on social media showed downstream communities. Floods inundated homes, overflowed fields, blocked roads and inundated a zoo in the Russian-controlled city of Nova Kakhovka, the mayor, Volodymyr Kovalenko, said. The town hall and the Palace of Culture were also under water.
A satellite image shows that the dam has broken in three places. About 200 meters of the central area was destroyed and a structure near the hydroelectric power station on top of the dam was split in two. a drone video initially showed part of the southern end of the dam still intact. A few hours later, that area was under water.
Emergency services were on their way to southern Ukraine from Kiev, the head of the state emergency service, Serhiy Kruk, said in a statement. Vehicles designed to drive through flood waters, generators, mobile water treatment plants, water trucks and other equipment were also en route. Red Cross volunteers unloaded relief supplies in Mykolaiv.
Even as the water level rose, Russian troops still shelled the town on the outskirts of Kherson city.
Tatyana Yeroshenko, 32, a teacher and volunteer with an aid group, said over the phone that she was awakened by artillery explosions around 5 a.m. Tuesday. “I heard a bang and my windows were shaking,” Ms. Yeroshenko said.
Then she checked her phone and saw news reports of a major flood.
In this area of southeastern Ukraine, where the Dnipro River separates Russian and Ukrainian forces, floodwaters poured into towns where tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated after Russia’s full-scale invasion 15 months ago. In Antonivka, about 4,000 residents had remained out of a pre-war population of about 13,000 before the flood, Ms. Yeroshenko said.
In a sign of how widespread the dam’s destruction can be, the head of Russian-controlled Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, warned about the water levels of the North Crimean Canal, which supplies fresh water to the peninsula from the Dnipro. On Telegram, he said that Crimea had sufficient water reserves in its reservoirs, but the level could fall.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the United States was monitoring the effects of the destruction. “It is very clear that the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure is not permitted by the laws of war,” he said.
“We know there are casualties,” he said, “which probably include a lot of deaths, although these are early reports and we can’t quantify them.”
He gave no further details and Ukrainian officials did not immediately release information on casualties.
Dam warfare in Ukraine is not new. In August 1941, during World War II, retreating Soviet troops blew a hole in the Dnipro hydroelectric power plant, which was flooded about 50 miles downstream, killing thousands. The Germans also blew up the dam years later when they retreated after repairing the Soviet damage.
Last fall, as Ukraine moved closer to retaking Kherson, officials in Kiev and Moscow both warned the other side would try to damage the dam. Appearing via video, Mr Zelensky told a meeting of European leaders in Brussels that Russia was preparing a “false flag” operation to blow it up and accuse Ukraine of the humanitarian and environmental catastrophe that could follow.
Military analysts said at the time that neither side had anything to gain from destroying the dam, as it would affect both armies.
Some military analysts warned against assigning blame with limited information.
“It is too early to say whether this is an intentional act by Russia or the result of negligence and previous damage to the dam,” said Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at CNA, a research institute in Arlington, Virginia.
“This is a disaster that ultimately benefits no one,” Mr Kofman added. “Russia is responsible because it controlled the dam, and its actions in Ukraine somehow led to this outcome.”
But on Tuesday, Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s top diplomat, said the disaster represented “a new dimension of Russian atrocities”. He promised in a message on Twitter that “all commanders, perpetrators and accomplices” would be held accountable for this “violation” of international humanitarian law.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the dam’s destruction as “ecocide”, adding: “Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam, causing probably Europe’s biggest technological disaster in decades and endangering thousands of citizens. This is a heinous war crime”
Experts said the flooding is expected to increase as water continues to flow from the reservoir before peaking in a day or two.
The loss of the dam is not expected to have a serious impact on Ukraine’s power grid, said Alex Riabchyn, Ukraine’s former deputy energy minister, because the hydropower plant had not been operating on the power grid since October. But it could cause a serious shortage of drinking water in the Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, he said.
The flooding could also expose underground land mines and wash them downstream. The HALO Trust, a British-American charity that clears mines planted by Russian troops, said it was now operating in the flooded areas.
Others expressed concern about possible industrial pollution and the threat to natural areas.
“It will have a range of acute and also long-term effects on the environment,” said Doug Weir, the research and policy director of Britain’s Conflict and Environment Observatory. “It will have a huge legacy.”
Reporting contributed by Hayley Willis, Victoria Kim, Eric Schmitt, Paul Son, Maria Varenikova, Anna Lukanova, Evelina Riabenko, Farnaz Fassihi, Max Bearak, Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Isabella Kwai And Monica Proncuk.