(Kyiv) An attack on a dam in southern Ukraine, for which Moscow and Kyiv blame each other, caused flooding and the evacuation of residents in the surrounding areas, occupied by Russia, on Tuesday, sparking an international outcry .
It also caused new concerns for the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, located 150 km upstream of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, built along the Dnieper in the Kherson region and which provides cooling.
There is “no immediate nuclear danger,” assured the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), stressing that its experts at the Zaporizhia power plant were monitoring the situation.
The plant and the dam are in areas occupied by Russian forces after the invasion launched at the end of February 2022.
“The flood is right before our eyes. Nobody knows what can happen now. A good Russian is a dead Russian, I can’t say anything more,” Kherson resident Viktor told AFP.
“These pigs (offensive nicknames given to the Russians, Ed.) must flee faster, they must be hunted! That’s not a life! Here they shoot, and there they flood! », Lioudmila, another resident.
Ukraine accused Russia of having “blown up” the dam to “curb” its offensive.
This attack against one of the largest infrastructures of this type in Ukraine comes the day after Ukraine asserted that it had gained ground near Bakhmout (East), while relativizing the scale of “offensive actions carried out elsewhere on the front.
Russia claims to repel these large-scale attacks. The Ukrainian authorities say they have been preparing for months a vast counter-offensive intended to force Russian troops to withdraw from the areas they occupy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky convened his security council and the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Yermak, accused Moscow of a “war crime”.
floods
The Kremlin denounced an act of “deliberate sabotage” of Kyiv and “firmly” rejected the Ukrainian accusations.
The local authorities installed in Ukraine by Moscow had previously incriminated “multiple strikes” Ukrainian on the dam according to them partially destroyed.
The town of Nova Kakhovka, where the dam is located, “is flooded”, according to its mayor Vladimir Leontiev. He had previously assured: “the dam is not destroyed and it is an immense happiness”.
According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal, up to 80 localities are threatened by the flood and “evacuation measures are underway” by train to Mykolaiv. They are carried out under the continuous bombardments of the Russian artillery which injured two policemen, according to the Minister of the Interior Igor Klymenko.
According to local authorities installed by Moscow, the water rose to a level of between 2 and 4 meters. This “does not threaten the large localities” below, said Andrei Alekseïenko, head of government of the Kherson region, on Telegram.
In total, the “coastal territories” of 14 localities where “more than 22,000 people reside” are threatened with flooding, he said, assuring: “the situation is completely under control”.
Kyiv believes that the danger of nuclear disaster is “growing rapidly” at the plant. Moscow ensures that the plant, located on the banks of the Dnieper, but higher than the dam attacked, is not threatened.
The dam’s Ukrainian operator, Ukrgidroenergo, estimated that the reservoir “should be operational for the next four days”, but its level is decreasing rapidly, threatening the plant’s safety system.
The director of the plant, Yuri Tchernichuk, installed by the Russian occupation, assured that “at the moment there is no threat” for the security of the installation.
” War crime ”
Russia will be held to account for the “war crime” of destroying civilian infrastructure, European Council chief Charles Michel said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was outraged by the attack which “once again demonstrates the brutality of Russia’s war”. He spoke of a “scandalous act” which “endangers thousands of civilians and causes serious damage to the environment”.
For German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who spoke of a blast, the attack gives a “new dimension” to the war led by Russia.
The United Kingdom underlined by the voice of the head of its diplomacy James Cleverly that “the intentional attack of exclusively civilian infrastructures is a war crime”.
Ukraine has called Russia a ‘terrorist state’ at the International Court of Justice, where the two countries are presenting their case this week in a case in which Kyiv accuses Moscow of years of supporting separatist rebels in the Is Ukrainian since 2014.
The attack on the dam “caused significant civilian evacuations and serious ecological damage”, declared the Ukrainian representative Anton Korynevych before the highest court of the UN. “Russia’s actions are the actions of a terrorist state, an aggressor.”
In Kyiv, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak, denounced a “war crime” and called on the world to react to Russian “terrorism” and “ecocide” in Ukraine.
In addition to the nuclear risk, Ukrainian officials have warned of an environmental risk after the dumping in the Dnieper of 150 tons of motor oil, according to them, with a risk of further leaks.
The Kakhovka dam, taken at the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, notably makes it possible to supply water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Moscow.
Laid out on the Dnieper River in the 1950s, during the Soviet period, the work is built partly of concrete and earth.