Ukraine: Destroyed Soviet-era dam near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
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Vladimir Putin’s forces have been accused of attacking the Ukrainian city of Kherson during evacuation efforts following the collapse of the nearby Kakhovka Dam.
The attorney general’s office said two other people were injured in the incident and four were wounded at a separate location, and that a war crimes investigation had been opened.
“Due to targeted strikes by occupiers during evacuation measures in the city, a civilian was killed,” he said in a statement on Telegram. “Two more people were injured. Data is being verified.”
According to the region’s governor, widespread flooding caused by the dam’s destruction has left about 600 square kilometers, or 230 square miles, under water.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said the shelling began “precisely during the evacuation of citizens whose houses were flooded.”
He reiterated accusations that Russia has abandoned people in the territory it has occupied in the Kherson region, adding: “And it continues to prevent Ukraine from saving the most valuable human lives.”
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One killed in Russian ‘targeted strikes’ in Kherson during evacuation: Kyiv
At least one person was killed after Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in “targeted strikes” during evacuation efforts amid massive flooding, Ukraine’s attorney general said Thursday.
“Due to targeted strikes by occupiers during evacuation measures in the city, a civilian was killed,” he said in a statement on Telegram. “Two more people were injured. Data is being verified.”
Eleanor NoyceJune 8, 2023 2:01 p.m
WHO rushes supplies to Ukraine, prepares to deal with disease in flood zones
The World Health Organization has accelerated emergency supplies to flood-affected areas in Ukraine and is preparing to respond to a range of health risks, including trauma, drowning and water-borne diseases water like cholera, officials said Thursday.
Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the bursting of the Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which sent water cascading across the war zone in southern Ukraine early Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
“The impact of sanitation systems on water supplies and public health services in the region cannot be underestimated,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.
“WHO has been quick to support authorities and health workers in preventive measures against waterborne diseases and to improve disease surveillance.”
(Reuters)
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 4:00 p.m
Watch: Zelensky visits flood-hit Kherson to survey damage after dam burst
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Kherson following widespread flooding caused by the collapse of the nearby Kakhovka Dam.
Zelensky visits flood-hit Kherson to survey the damage after the dam burst
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 3:35 p.m
Ukraine fears losing millions of tonnes of crops after dam collapse
Ukraine could lose several million tons of crops due to flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in the south of the country, the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday.
“Without a source of water supply, it is impossible to grow vegetables. Cereal and oilseeds will be grown using an extensive model with low yields,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said destroying the dam would flood tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land in southern Ukraine and could turn at least 500,000 hectares of non-irrigated land into “deserts”.
The ministry said the flooded land would require a full agro-ecological assessment of the soil condition, and in most cases, special soil restoration methods would need to be applied.
He said vegetables, melons, cereals and oilseeds were the main products grown in the affected lands.
Ukraine is a major global producer and exporter of cereals and oilseeds.
The destruction of the dam on Tuesday, which Ukraine and Russia hold each other responsible for, has also made parts of the Dnipro River unnavigable and deprived Kiev of an important agricultural export route, shipping authorities said.
Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky also said losses in the agricultural sector could be much higher than previously expected because the disaster inflicted “years” of damage on irrigation.
(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 3:13 p.m
Mapped: Damage caused by Ukraine’s devastated dam
War-torn Ukraine is reeling from the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which saw its reservoir burst causing chaos for miles around.
Hundreds of thousands more have been left without access to clean water in the region as a result of the eco-disaster on the Dnipro River, prompting aid workers to rush fresh supplies to the area as they battle the problems of mass resettlement.
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 2:00 p.m
Russian forces shell Kherson during flood evacuation
At least three people were injured Thursday in a Russian shelling of the Ukrainian city of Kherson as people were being evacuated from flooding caused by the collapse of the nearby Kakhovka Dam, police said.
“The shelling began precisely during the evacuation of citizens whose houses were flooded,” Ukraine’s interior ministry said in a statement.
He reiterated accusations that Russia has abandoned people in the territory it has occupied in the Kherson region, adding: “And it continues to prevent Ukraine from saving the most valuable human lives.”
A Reuters reporter in Kherson said he could hear what appeared to be artillery fire, but could not immediately provide details of the circumstances.
Kherson is located on the Dnipro, about 60 km (37 mi) downstream of the Kakhovka Dam.
Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said earlier Thursday that 68 percent of the flooded territory in the Kherson region was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River.
Russia has accused Ukrainian forces of shelling rescue workers in Russian-held areas of the Kherson region, with each side blaming the other for the destruction of the Kahkovka hydroelectric plant and dam on Tuesday.
(Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 1:35 p.m
Sunak condemns a “horrific act” of destruction of the Kakhovka Dam
The destruction of Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine was a “horrific act”, Rishi Sunak has said.
Speaking to broadcasters during his trip to the US, the prime minister said: “We are still definitively establishing the cause of the attack on the dam in Ukraine, but I want people to know that we are doing our part to give support for Ukrainians in Ukraine. their response”.
He added: “This is an appalling act and hundreds of thousands of people are affected.”
Sunak also condemned Russia’s “unprovoked and illegal act of aggression” in invading Ukraine.
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 1:10 p.m
The governor of Kherson says Russian forces are shelling the city
Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and nearby coastal areas on Thursday, the regional governor said on Thursday.
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin made the comment on the Telegram messaging app as emergency workers tried to evacuate people after flooding caused by the destruction of the nearby Kakhovka Dam on Tuesday.
A Reuters reporter in Kherson said he could hear what appeared to be artillery fire, but could not immediately provide details of the circumstances. Russia has accused Ukrainian forces of shelling rescue workers in Russian-occupied areas of the Kherson region.
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 12:41 p.m
The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of shelling Russian rescue workers in the dam’s flood zone
The Kremlin on Thursday accused Ukraine of shelling Russian rescue workers in the flooded area after the massive Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s Kherson region broke earlier this week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian rescue workers in the area were working hard, but said the Ukrainian military was making their work more dangerous.
“The difficulty is that in many places they (rescuers) are forced to work under conditions of continuous shelling from Ukraine, and this complicates their work,” Peskov told reporters.
He provided no immediate evidence for his claim.
Ukrainian officials on Wednesday accused Russian forces of shelling rescue workers on the Kiev-controlled right (west) bank of the Dnipro River. Moscow controls the left (east) bank.
The breach of the Kakhovka Dam on Tuesday has caused massive flooding of the Dnipro River estuary downstream, with thousands of evacuees and settlements on both sides of the river flooded.
Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was monitoring the situation in the region, but currently had no plans to visit the disaster area.
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 11:57 am
The water level in a reservoir in southern Ukraine is nearing a dangerous low following the destruction of the dam at the nearby Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, the state company that oversees the facility said Thursday.
Moscow and Kiev blamed each other for the dam collapse on Tuesday, which unleashed floodwaters from the Dnipro River across a wide swath of southern Ukraine.
Ukrhydroenergo CEO Ihor Syrota told Ukrainian television that a drop below the current water level in the Kakhovka reservoir could affect the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and water supplies to other regions .
“We are reaching this dead zone, which is 12.70 (meters), after which there will be no intake of water either for the cooling ponds of the Zaporizhzhia station … or … for in all regions”.
The UN atomic watchdog said on Tuesday that the plant, Europe’s largest, has enough water to cool its reactors for “several months” from a pond above the reservoir.
Ukraine’s nuclear power company said on Thursday that the situation was “stable and under control” at the Zaporizhzhia plant on Thursday morning.
Syrota added that Ukrhydroenergo was ready to work on an overlay on the damaged hydroelectric station and dam as soon as Russian forces left the east side of the Dnipro, and that it would take about two months to complete.
Ukrainian servicemen help local residents during an evacuation from a flooded area in Kherson
(AFP via Getty Images)
Maryam Zakir-HussainJune 8, 2023 11:38 am
