Billions of tons of water flooded towns and villages: anniversary of the Russians' terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant

Today, June 6, Ukraine commemorates the anniversary of one of Russia’s largest terrorist attacks in this war. On the night of June 6, 2023 the occupiers blew up the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, causing a catastrophe whose consequences will remain in the country’s history forever.

In a single night the Russians destroyed not only a strategic object but an entire water system on which cities, villages, farms, households, irrigation, ecosystems and people’s lives in the south of Ukraine depended. After the dam was blown up, billions of tons of water from the Kakhovka Reservoir rushed downstream. About 600 km² of territory was submerged. To grasp the scale – that’s roughly the size of the entire Kyiv within its administrative boundaries.

Thousands of people were left homeless. Some settlements were flooded completely or almost completely. On the territory controlled by Ukraine there are reports of 31 fatalities. On the occupied left bank the real number of victims is still impossible to establish. The situation became especially terrible in Oleshky, which was captured by Russian forces. According to various reports, only there between 200 and 300 people may have died. The occupiers prevented full evacuation, concealed the scale of the tragedy, removed bodies and, according to locals, falsified causes of death.

The Kakhovka Reservoir was the largest in Ukraine by water volume – about 18 km³. That is almost seven times more than the volume of the Kyiv Sea. Its destruction was a blow to water supply, agriculture, energy, the environment and whole communities in the south. The catastrophe also affected Mykolaiv Oblast. In the first days after the explosion water rose in the waters of Mykolaiv and nearby communities, changed river flows, created risks for industrial facilities and once again reminded how closely our region is connected to the southern water system.

Over time the water receded, and on the site of the former reservoir the natural restoration of Velykyi Luh began – a historical and ecological area that had been underwater for decades. Where there had recently been an artificial reservoir, vegetation has reappeared and a large wooded ecosystem is forming. But natural recovery does not erase the crime. The blowing up of the Kakhovka HPP was an act of terror, ecocide and a deliberate strike against the civilian population. Russia did not destroy the dam by accident or because of an “accident”, but as part of a war against Ukraine – a war against people, cities, nature, water and the future.

This day must remain a day of remembrance for the dead and a reminder that Russia’s crimes have no statute of limitations. The water receded, but the scar from this catastrophe will remain in the south of Ukraine forever.

Previously, we wrote:

• Russian occupiers blew up the Kakhovka HPP: water will reach a critical level soon, people are being evacuated
• Water level continues to rise in the village of Halytsynove
• Flow speed is significantly higher than usual: in Mykolaiv rivers flowed in the opposite direction
• Another half meter — a meter: water is approaching the base of the MGZ sludge reservoir
• Over a third of the water from the Kakhovka Reservoir has been lost, – Ukrhydroenergo