Ukraine’s major dam destroyed, causing massive flooding and posing a threat to nuclear reactor.

Ryan SaavedraJune 6, 2023

Breaking News: Major Dam Destroyed in Southern Ukraine

In a devastating turn of events, a 2-mile-long dam in southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday morning, causing over 15,000 residents downstream to be evacuated immediately. The Kakhovka dam, located in Russian-occupied territory, holds the same amount of water as the Great Salt Lake in Utah and was built nearly seven decades ago as part of a hydroelectric power plant on the Dnipro River.

According to Reuters, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of blowing up the dam, while Russian officials suggested that it was a Ukrainian terrorist attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Twitter to condemn the attack, calling the perpetrators “Russian terrorists.”

Russian terrorists. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land. Not a single meter should be left to them, because they use every meter for terror. It’s only… pic.twitter.com/ErBog1gRhH

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 6, 2023

The New York Times spoke with experts who warned that the destruction caused by the dam’s demolition could be “catastrophic” for “communities, irrigation, and transportation.” The International Atomic Energy Agency is closely monitoring the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which gets the water it needs to stay cool from the reservoir. While the six reactors at the nuclear facility are shut down, they still require water to keep the radioactive fuel inside the reactor cores cool.

As former minister of energy of Ukraine, Ivan Plachkov, stated, “It is a very dangerous situation.”