The Kyiv Independent reports that Ukraine will allocate US$40.6 million for the construction of new water mains:
⚡ Government to allocate $40.6 million for new water mains.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 6, 2023
Ukraine’s government will allocate Hr 1.5 billion ($40.6 million) for the construction of new water mains following the breach of the Kakhovka dam, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on June 6.
Russian forces fire at ammonia pipeline in Kharkiv, says governor
Russian forces repeatedly fired at an ammonia pipeline in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, a local governor said on Tuesday, a conduit potentially crucial for the extension of a deal allowing the safe export of grains and fertilisers from Black Sea ports.
Reuters report that the ammonia pipeline, the world’s longest, stretches about 2,470 kilometres (1,534 miles) from Russia’s Togliatti on the Volga River to three Black Sea ports. It has been shut down since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
There was no recorded leakage from the late Tuesday shelling that hit the pipeline near the village of Masiutivka and an overnight shelling near the village of Zapadne, said Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
“There is no threat to people’s lives and health,” Sinehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has condemned the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russia-occupied south of his country as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction”. Zelenskiy made the claim in his nightly video address to the nation on Tuesday, adding that only liberation of the whole of Ukraine from the Russian invasion could guarantee against new “terrorist” acts. “Such deliberate destruction by the Russian occupiers and other structures of the hydroelectric power station is an environmental bomb of mass destruction,” he said.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that if the bursting of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on Tuesday was proven to be intentional, it would represent a “new low” in Russian aggression, BBC reporter Chris Mason tweeted.Sunak said the UK’s military and intelligence agencies were looking into the blast and it was too soon to pre-empt the cause and make a definitive judgment, while he was travelling to Washington for his upcoming meeting with Joe Biden, BBC’s Mason said.
US military chief Milley said Ukraine is “well prepared” for a counteroffensive. The senior US military leader, chair of the joint chiefs General Mark Milley, says that while few conclusions can be drawn from an increase of fighting in Ukraine, the country is ‘well prepared’ to carry on the battle against the Russian invasion. But he also cautions the war will be “lengthy”.
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff says he “does not understand” how there are any doubts that Russian forces blew up the dam. In a statement, Andriy Yermak said: “At 2.50am, Russian troops blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and its dam. I do not understand how there can be any doubt about this. Both constructions are located in the temporary Russian-occupied territories. Neither shelling nor any other external influence was capable of destroying the structures. The explosion came from within.”
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of deliberately sabotaging the dam. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, told reporters: “We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side.” He said [Russian president] Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation.
The US “cannot say conclusively” who was responsible. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House: “We’re doing the best we can to assess”, noting “destruction of civilian infrastructure is not allowed by the laws of war”. Earlier Tuesday, NBC News reported that the US government had intelligence indicating Russia was behind the incident, according to two US officials and one western official.
The Ukrainian government called for people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding. Energy company Ukrahydroenergo said the hydroelectric power plant at the dam had been blown up from the inside and was irreparable.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said about 16,000 people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the river. The areas most under threat of flooding are the islands along the course of the Dnipro downstream of Nova Kakhovka and much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson. Andrey Alekseyenko, one of the Russian-installed officials in occupied Kherson, has posted to Telegram to say that up to 22,000 people are in the flood plains in Russian-controlled territory.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called for an urgent meeting of UN security council to discuss what it called a Russian “terrorist act against Ukrainian critical infrastructure”.
There seems to be no immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam 200km downstream, according to Ukrainian and UN experts. Water from the reservoir affected by the destruction of the dam is used to supply the plant’s cooling systems.
George Barros, an analyst at the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War, has shared these images showing the extent of the flooding southeast of Kherson city:
Before/after images of flooded homes along the Dnipro River southeast of Kherson City
— George Barros (@georgewbarros) June 6, 2023
Location: 46.604, 32.571
image: @Maxar pic.twitter.com/iqcitCRdX4
Updated
The Associated Press has this sketch from the evacuations:
As shelling from Russia’s war on Ukraine echoed overhead, dozens of evacuees on an island in the Dnipro River scurried on to the tops of military trucks or into rafts to flee rising flood waters caused by the breach of a dam upstream.
The unnerving bark of dogs left behind further soured the mood of those ferried to safety. A woman in one raft clutched the head of her despondent daughter. A stalled military truck stuck in swelling waters raised the panic level as Red Cross teams tried to manage an orderly evacuation.
Nobody knew just how high the waters rushing through a gaping hole in the Kakhovka dam would rise, or whether people or pets would escape alive.
The scrambled evacuation by boat and military truck from an island neighbourhood off the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson downstream on Tuesday testified to the latest human chaos caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities accused Russian forces of purposely destroying the dam. Russian authorities blamed recent Ukrainian military strikes.
“The Russians have hit the dam, and didn’t think of consequences,” said Oleksandr Sokeryn, who fled his house with his family after it was completely flooded. “They should not be forgiven.”
Officials on both sides said the massive dam breach had caused no civilian casualties, and the hurried escape was aimed to keep it that way.
Updated
British PM says military and intelligence agencies looking into the blast
Rishi Sunak said that if the bursting of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on Tuesday was proven to be intentional, it would represent a “new low” in Russian aggression, BBC reporter Chris Mason tweeted.
The British PM said the UK’s military and intelligence agencies were looking into the blast and it was too soon to pre-empt the cause and make a definitive judgment, while he was travelling to Washington for his upcoming meeting with Joe Biden, BBC’s Mason said.
Updated
Here are some recent photos of residents from the areas affected by flooding:
The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam has been widely condemned as a possible war crime.
John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the national security council, said the US was assessing whether it a war crime
Multiple Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that if Russia had attacked the dam it would be a war crime under the terms of the Geneva conventions.
The conventions mention dams, which are listed under “works containing dangerous forces”:
Article 56 – Protection of works and installations containing dangerous forces
1. Works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations, shall not be made the object of attack, even where these objects are military objectives, if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population. Other military objectives located at or in the vicinity of these works or installations shall not be made the object of attack if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces from the works or installations and consequent severe losses among the civilian population.
Updated
Hi, this is Helen Sullivan taking over our coverage of the war in Ukraine and the attack on Nova Kakhovka dam.
I’ll be with you for the next while. If you see news you think we may have missed, have questions, or live near Nova Kakhovka dam get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Russia’s UN envoy was accused of floundering in a mud of lies when he claimed at an emergency session of the UN security council that Ukraine was guilty of a extremely dangerous strategy and a war crime by destroying Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.
Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukraine envoy to the UN, said it was typical of Russians to blame the victim for its own crimes, noting that Russia has controlled the dam for more than a year and it would have been physically impossible to blow it up by shelling. He said the dam was mined by the Russian occupiers who blew it up and accused Russia of floundering in a mud of lies.
Kyslytsya also said the flooding caused by the explosion was going to be far worse on the Ukrainian occupied side of the Dnipro river.
“By resorting to scorched earth tactics, or in this case to flooded Earth tactics, the Russian occupiers have effectively recognised that the captured territory does not belong to them, and they are not able to hold these lands,” he said.
Neither French US or British representatives at the UN directly claimed there was evidence of Russian responsibility, but called for an investigation and insisted their support was unwavering to Ukraine.
Updated
The United States said it was “not certain” who was to blame for a burst dam in Ukraine, but it would not make sense for Ukraine to have done this to its own people and territory, while Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for the disaster.
The 15-member UN security council met on Tuesday at the request of both Russia and Ukraine after a torrent of water burst through a massive dam on the Dnipro River, which separates the opposing forces in southern Ukraine.
When asked if the United States knew who was responsible, deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, told reporters ahead of the council meeting: “We’re not certain at all, we hope to have more information in the coming days.”
“But, I mean, come on … why would Ukraine do this to its own territory and people, flood its land, force tens of thousands of people to leave their homes – it doesn’t make sense,” Wood said.
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said earlier on Tuesday that it did not have any independent information on how the dam burst, but described it as “another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine”.
Updated
The head of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev will hold in Minsk security talks with his Belarusian counterpart this week as well as the security heads of several other countries in the region, Russia’s news agencies reported.
Patrushev is to hold talks with the head of Belarus security Alexander Wolfovich on Wednesday and the heads of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), on Thursday, TASS reported.
The CSTO is an intergovernmental military alliance consisting of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Asked whether the subject would be raised with the US President Joe Biden at their meeting on Thursday, Rishi Sunak added: “Of course I’ll be discussing Ukraine with President Biden, generally, but the immediate response is humanitarian.
“So we had already put resources and funding in place to support both the UN and the Red Cross to respond to situations like this.
“And they are now being able to divert those resources to particularly help the humanitarian response and the evacuation in this area as a result of what’s happened.
“So we were already thinking ahead about situations like this, and I’m pleased that the UK is continuing to support Ukraine in lots of different ways.”
Sunak: Destruction of Ukraine dam a ‘new low’ if Russia are responsible
Rishi Sunak said the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine would mark a “new low” in the conflict if Russian forces were found to be responsible.
The UK’s prime minister said the immediate priority was the humanitarian response to the catastrophe, which has flooded villages, endangered vital crops and threatened drinking water supplies.
Sunak, speaking to reporters as he travelled to Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden, said if it was an intentional act to blow up the dam it would be “the largest attack on civilian infrastructure” since the start of Vladimir Putin’s war.
He said attacks on civilian infrastructure were “appalling and wrong”.
Sunak said: “Our military and intelligence agencies are currently looking at it, so it’s too soon to pre-empt that and make a definitive judgment.
“But what I can say is if it is intentional, it would represent, I think, the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, and just would demonstrate the new lows that we would have seen from Russian aggression.
“Attacks on civilian infrastructure are appalling and wrong. We’ve seen previous instances of that in this conflict so far, but it’s too early to say definitively.”
Updated
In his nightly address, president Zelensky also said Ukrainian prosecutors had already approached prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague “to involve international justice in the investigation of the destruction of the dam”.
And for the second day running, Zelenskiy singled out military units fighting in and near the long-besieged eastern city of Bakhmut while giving no details of the clashes, Reuters reports.
Here are some more images sent to us on the news wires on Tuesday afternoon showing the aftermath of the explosion and collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine:
Zelenskiy: dam attack 'environmental bomb of mass destruction'
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has condemned the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russia-occupied south of his country as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction”.
Zelenskiy made the claim in his nightly video address to the nation on Tuesday, adding that only liberation of the whole of Ukraine from the Russian invasion could guarantee against new “terrorist” acts, Reuters reports.
“Such deliberate destruction by the Russian occupiers and other structures of the hydroelectric power station is an environmental bomb of mass destruction,” he said.
He said that he destruction of the dam would “not stop Ukraine and Ukrainians. We will still liberate all our land. Only the complete liberation of Ukrainian land from the Russian occupiers will guarantee that there will be no more such terrorist attacks.”
Updated
The government of Spain has condemned the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in a statement issued Tuesday night, the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent Sam Jones reports.
The statement stops short of blaming Russia for the incident, but makes clear Spain believes a crime has taken place:
This act, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, affects the lives and safety of thousands of people in the region and represents a huge environmental harm.
Here’s our sketch from the Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh in Kherson, following the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam:
On what should have been a Kherson street corner, Larysa Musian, a hydrologist, sits and watches the flood waters rising. The Dnipro River used to be 300-400 metres away, but after the dam at Nova Kakhovka was breached at 2.50am on Tuesday, it has burst into the city, flooding the first two or three blocks of the lowest lying quarter.
Every half hour, Musian rises from her stool, carrying a square charcoal grey ruler. The water, she says, is rising “6 to 8cm every half hour” and is 3 metres above where it was before the dam burst. She phones through her figures to colleagues in the regional monitoring centre in nearby Mykolaiv.
“When it goes back to 5cm an hour, and then four, we can start saying it has stabilised,” Musian continues, as she returns to her perch. But it is not clear when that will happen, not least because “we cannot say for sure how much water passed the dam, because it was controlled by the Russians”.
For now, the river waters continue to rise visibly, in line it seems with Musian’s calculations, lapping farther up the dry streets, the latest avoidable tragedy to hit a city already blighted heavily by the 15-month war.
As a scientist, what does she think of who did this? “It’s inhumane and dumb,” she says, and the culprits were “Russians who did this deliberately; I’m not thinking it was an accident.”
Not everybody wanted to speak to the Guardian, but those who did knew who to blame – “Muscovites”, another resident said.
The nearest Russian positions are only 2.5km away, and since Ukraine managed to liberate Kherson in November, the invaders have responded with incessant and at times deadly shelling. The low-lying area was already largely deserted and war damage is all too visible. Now it is being flooded in smelly, dirty, oil-coated river water.
Read the full story:
US military chief Milley: Ukraine 'well prepared' for counteroffensive
The senior US military leader, chair of the joint chiefs General Mark Milley, says that while few conclusions can be drawn from an increase of fighting in Ukraine, the country is ‘well prepared’ to carry on the battle against the Russian invasion.
But he also cautions the war will be “lengthy”.
Milley was speaking with the Associated Press at the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, final resting place of almost 9,400 troops who died 79 years ago during the allied D-Day invasion on 6 June, 1944.
He said it was up to Ukraine to announce whether its counteroffensive campaign has formally begun, but he said Ukrainian troops are ready for the fight:
There’s activity throughout Russian-occupied Ukraine and fighting has picked up.
It’s our estimation that the Ukrainian military is well prepared for whatever they do. They choose to fight in the offensive fight or in the defense, they’re well-prepared.
As time goes on, he says, the fighting will vary:
Like the battle of Normandy or any other major battle, warfare is a give and take. There will be days you see a lot of activity and there will be days you may see very little activity.
There will be offensive actions and defense actions. So this will be a back-and-forth fight for a considerable length of time.
You can read Milley’s D-Day anniversary interview with the AP here.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is warning, again, of an “escalation” in the war in Ukraine if western allies provide F-16 fighter jets for use in the conflict.
“We must keep in mind that one of the modifications of the F-16 can ‘accommodate’ nuclear weapons,” he said Tuesday in a speech at a military base in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, according to Reuters.
Lavrov said U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets can 'accommodate' nuclear weapons and warned that supplying Kyiv with them will escalate the conflict further. https://t.co/t0eddbotvf.
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) June 6, 2023
“If they do not understand this, then they are worthless as military strategists and planners.”
A number of nations, including the UK, have said in recent weeks that they want to help procure the fighter jets for Ukraine. Joe Biden has not committed to supplying aircraft, but has said the US will back an international effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly them before doing so.
John Kirby, White House coordinator of strategic communications for the National Security Council, spoke to reporters about F-16s on Tuesday:
The purpose of providing advanced fighter aircraft is to help Ukraine defend itself defend its airspace and its territorial integrity, period.
To Lavrov, he added:
If you’re worried about Ukrainian military capabilities, then you should take your troops and leave Ukraine.
Read more:
Interim summary
Here’s where things stand on a day in the Ukraine war dominated by news of the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam following an explosion:
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff says he ‘does not understand’ how there are any doubts that Russian forces blew up the dam. In a statement, Andriy Yermak said: “At 2.50am, Russian troops blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and its dam. I do not understand how there can be any doubt about this. Both constructions are located in the temporary Russian-occupied territories. Neither shelling nor any other external influence was capable of destroying the structures. The explosion came from within.”
The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of deliberately sabotaging the dam. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, told reporters: “We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side.” He said [Russian president] Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation.
The US “cannot say conclusively” who was responsible. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House: “We’re doing the best we can to assess”, noting “destruction of civilian infrastructure is not allowed by the laws of war”. Earlier Tuesday, NBC News reported that the US government had intelligence indicating Russia was behind the incident, according to two US officials and one western official.
The Ukrainian government called for people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding. Energy company Ukrahydroenergo said the hydroelectric power plant at the dam had been blown up from the inside and was irreparable.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said about 16,000 people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the river.
The areas most under threat of flooding are the islands along the course of the Dnipro downstream of Nova Kakhovka and much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson. Andrey Alekseyenko, one of the Russian-installed officials in occupied Kherson, has posted to Telegram to say that up to 22,000 people are in the flood plains in Russian-controlled territory.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called for an urgent meeting of UN security council to discuss what it called a Russian “terrorist act against Ukrainian critical infrastructure”.
There seems to be no immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam 200km downstream, according to Ukrainian and UN experts. Water from the reservoir affected by the destruction of the dam is used to supply the plant’s cooling systems.
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, who is in Ukraine, blamed the destruction on Russia’s invasion. “I’ve heard reports of the explosion on the dam and the risk of flooding. It’s too early to make any kind of meaningful assessment of the details,” he said.
Here’s what you need to know about the dam:
Updated
White House 'assessing' if dam attack is war crime
John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, has just spoken at the White House, and says the US is “assessing” the attack on the Nova Kakhovk dam.
He was asked if the Biden administration considers it a war crime:
I don’t have a determination on that to speak to today. I would just say we’re still trying to assess what happened here, but the Russians had illegally taken over that dam in the reservoir many months ago, and they were occupying it when this explosion happened.
It’s very clear that the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure is not allowed by the laws of war, and in the additional protocol to the Geneva Convention that the Russians have themselves signed, destruction of civilian infrastructure, such as dams, are clearly articulated in their violations of that code.
But again, we haven’t made a decision. We’re still talking to the Ukrainians.
![National Security Council Coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby briefs reporters at the White House about the attack on the Nova Kakhovk dam: “[We] cannot say conclusively what happened at this point” but adds that the US expects many deaths from the explosion.](https://media.guim.co.uk/6c6d92cf4e88a956eccc8764960de248f514523f/0_640_7354_4413/1000.jpg)
Kirby is also promising that more support for Ukraine will be coming in short order as a potential “repercussion” of the attack:
I guarantee you, you’re gonna see additional security assistance packages in coming days and weeks. We’re going to continue to make sure that Ukraine can succeed on the battlefield, as President Biden has said.
If Russia is concerned about Ukrainian military capabilities, best thing that they can do would be to leave Ukraine.
We have made our concerns about strikes inside Russia very clear to Ukrainian officials. They’ve acknowledged that and they have assured us that they won’t use US-made equipment to strike inside Russia.
We don’t want to see the war escalate and, and there’s no apologies for that. But I won’t go into detail about the private discussions that we’re having with with Ukrainians.
Updated
Reuters reports that Russia’s foreign ministry said it summoned Belgium’s ambassador on Tuesday to protest what it said was the use of “Belgian weapons” by pro-Ukraine militants that attacked Russian territory last month.
This claim has not been independently verified.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said “35 to 70 towns will be flooded” along the Dnipro River after the blowing up of Nova Kakhovka dam.
He also said there could be problems accessing clean drinking water while speaking at a briefing on Tuesday.
“There will be big problems with drinking water even where there is no flooding. In the whole region,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Andrei Alexeyenko, chairman of the Russian-appointed government of Ukraine’s Kherson province, said the small town of Oleshky, which lies on the southern bank of the Dnipro River, was almost completely flooded.
On Telegram, Alexeyenko posted videos showing one car standing in flood water up to the window and a lorry driving along a highway in water at least a foot deep.
Updated
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU commission, said on Twitter that Russia would have to “pay for the war crimes committed in Ukraine”.
She called the destruction of Nova Kakhovka dam an “outrageous attack on civilian infrastructure [that] puts at risk thousands of people in the Kherson region.”
She also confirmed that the EU has engaged its civil protection mechanism, which would “rapidly deliver” dirt water pumps, fire hoses, mobile water purification stations and boats to those affected by the dam explosion.
Russia will have to pay for the war crimes committed in Ukraine.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 6, 2023
The destruction of the dam, an outrageous attack on civilian infrastructure, puts at risk thousands of people in the Kherson region.
Europe is mobilising support through our civil protection mechanism.
Updated
NBC News reports that the US government has intelligence that indicates Russia is behind the blowing up of the Nova Kakhovka dam, according to two US officials and one western official.
President Joe Biden’s administration was working to declassify some of the intelligence and share it as early as Tuesday afternoon.
The western official said the collapse appears likely to make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to conduct a river crossing.
Updated
Julian Borger, our world affairs editor, writes about the long-term impacts of the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse
The people living along Ukraine’s lower Dnipro river must contend with the immediate consequences of the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and flee for safety with whatever they can salvage, but the wider impact could make itself felt for generations.
Downstream, the flood waters will subside somewhat as the surge reaches the Black Sea, but many of the villages and towns along the course of the Dnipro may not be habitable again unless and until a new dam is built. Thousands of homes and livelihoods have been swept away, along with countless domesticated and wild animals.
The ecological trauma of such an inundation of water and silt has changed the landscape in an instant, wiping away islands and wetlands. It could take years if not decades for the fauna and flora to bounce back. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called it the “largest human-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades”. It is the country’s misfortune to have also been the site of the Chornobyl disaster in 1986, arguably the last calamity on such a scale.
Read more: Devastation from Kakhovka dam collapse could take decades to heal
Updated
Exclusive: Zelenskiy chief of staff says he 'does not understand' how there are any doubts Russian forces blew up Nova Kakhovka dam
Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said he “did not understand” how there could be any doubt about whether Russian forces blew up the Nova Kakhovka dam. In a statement given to the Guardian, the senior aide said the dam could not have been destroyed through shelling or “any other external influence” - while another adviser to the president said the attack amounted to a war crime.
In the statement, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said: “At 2:50am this morning, Russian troops blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric Station and its dam. I do not understand how there can be any doubt about this. Both constructions are located in the temporary Russian-occupied territories. Neither shelling nor any other external influence was capable of destroying the structures. The explosion came from within.
“We know that Russian troops had mined the hydroelectric Station in the early days of the full-scale invasion, so the pre-meditated blast is the only plausible explanation. Any alternative theories are nothing less than false Russian propaganda narratives.”
Dasha Zarivna, a senior adviser in the Ukrainian presidential office, who was born and raised in Kherson, said: “The dam bombing is another unprecedented Russian war crime against Ukraine, which will have catastrophic consequences both for its population and other countries. These include environmental and economic consequences, a great risk from radiation and further serious disruption to food security.
“Last October, President Zelenskiy said: ‘All the world leaders should let Russia understand that a terrorist attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric station will be equated to the use of weapons of mass destruction’. Now it has happened. World leaders must recognise the equivalence, and now must act decisively. It is essential to isolate the terrorist state as completely as possible. Any economic ties with Russia outside of humanitarian activities should be regarded as complicity in its war crimes.”
Updated
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, calls the blowing up of Nova Kakhovka dam a consequence of the Russian invasion, Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters, Guterres said “one thing is clear, this is another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
“Attacks against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure must stop. We must act to ensure accountability and respect for international humanitarian law,” he continued.
Guterres added that it was a “monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe.”
“At least 16,000 people have already lost their homes – with safe and clean drinking water supplies at risk for many thousands more,” he said.
He added that the UN was coordinating with the Ukrainian government to send support including drinking water and water purification tablets.
Ukraine and Russia have both asked the UN security council to meet to discuss the incident.
Updated
Here are some images of nearby residents wading through flood water after the Nova Kakhovka dam explosion.
Reuters reports that Finland will expel nine diplomats working at the Russian embassy in Helsinki, accusing them of working on intelligence missions.
“Their actions are contrary to the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations,” the president’s office said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it would inform the Russian ambassador of the expulsions.
The decision was made at a meeting between Finnish president Sauli Niinisto and the country’s ministerial committee on foreign and security policy.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has blamed Russia for the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam, Reuters reports.
Speaking a townhall organised by broadcaster RTL, Scholz said: “By all accounts, this is aggression by the Russian side to stop the Ukrainian offensive, to defend its own country. This shows that this is a new dimension.”
Scholz also said that he intends to speak to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, again, but added he had not done so for a long time and now was not the right time.
Updated
Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian MP and leader of the liberal Holos party, said Ukraine was “one step away from a nuclear tragedy” after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
When asked about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station during an interview with GB News, Rudik said: “President Zelenskiy has warned the world in October last year that Russians have mined the Kakhovka power plant dam and that we were one step away from from the real tragedy. Right now, it happened.
“For the last year we have been saying to the world the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is critical and again we are one step away from a nuclear tragedy.
“If Russians are good at anything, they’re good at committing false flag operations. So let’s do possible and impossible things to make sure that we secure the station.”
She added: “As of right now, the situation is not dangerous but we cannot guarantee that that will not change and we are calling for international support, for the UN to make sure that we install international inspectors at the nuclear plant because we do not know what’s going to happen there.”
Updated
There has been some reaction to the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse on the other side of the Atlantic to Europe.
Reuters reports that a Biden administration official said the US was “very concerned” after the Russian-controlled dam burst, and was trying to find out more about the potential impact.
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said the destruction “was another example of the horrific consequences of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, said the disaster was “absolutely devastating for lives and livelihoods across the region”.
Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the collapse of the dam.
Updated
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, accused Ukraine on Tuesday of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam as part of a plan to redeploy units from the nearby Kherson region for operations against Russian forces.
Reuters reports that a Russian defence ministry statement signed by Shoigu said the dam breach and resultant flooding were designed to prevent Russia from attacking near Kherson, while allowing Ukraine to “transfer units and equipment from the Kherson front to the area of offensive operations”.
The widening of the Dnipro River by the flood water from the destroyed dam is likely to make it harder for Ukrainian troops to form a bridgehead and oust Russian troops from the left bank of the river and the southern portion of the Kherson oblast that Russia occupies and has claimed to annex. [See Dan Sabbagh’s analysis of potential military impact of the dam’s destruction at 10.27 BST]
Updated
Here are some images we have been sent over the news wires of Russians from the Shebekinsky district in Belgorod region receiving humanitarian aid after being evacuated.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister has accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam as a distraction from ongoing border skirmishes in Russia’s Belgorod region, and suggested it will have a negative impact on Russia’s own ability to hold on to territory it occupies in Kherson region.
On Telegram, Hanna Maliar posted:
The Russian terrorist army has committed another crime that is capable of causing a serious ecological and humanitarian catastrophe.
The purposeful undermining of the dam was carried out by the Russian occupiers in order to stop the process of de-occupation by the defence forces of Ukraine and shift the vector of public attention from the events taking place in the Belgorod region.
Instead, the Russian occupiers had the opposite effect.
Currently, civilians in the temporarily occupied settlements of Kherson region and Crimea are in a critical situation, as the destruction of the dam deprived them of fresh water. In addition, positions of Russian military units were flooded, which could lead to large-scale washing of Russian minefields and their detonation in a chaotic manner.
Earlier, the governor of Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, issued a denial in a video message that anti-Kremlin forces were in the settlement of Novaya Tavolzhanka, saying “there are many insinuations” but “today there is no enemy in the Belgorod region. People ask a lot about Novaya Tavolzhanka. There is no enemy on the territory of Novaya Tavolzhanka.”
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to say he met the pope’s peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi in Kyiv. Ukraine’s president wrote:
We discussed the situation in Ukraine and humanitarian cooperation in the framework of the Ukrainian peace formula. Only united efforts, diplomatic isolation and pressure on Russia can influence the aggressor and bring a just peace to the Ukrainian land.
I call on the Holy See to contribute to the implementation of the Ukrainian peace plan. Ukraine welcomes the readiness of other states and partners to find ways to peace, but since the war is on our territory, the algorithm for achieving peace can be Ukrainian only.
Ukraine’s 10-point peace formula demands the withdrawal of Russian troops, reparations and prosecutions for Russia’s war leadership.
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Russian defence minister claims huge losses inflicted on Ukrainian troops engaged in counteroffensive
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has claimed that a Ukrainian counteroffensive has been repulsed for three days by Russian forces who have inflicted more than 1,500 casualties in the process.
Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass reports:
According to him, on 4 June, the armed forces of Ukraine, with the help of two brigades, tried to attack in five directions, they did not achieve success and lost 300 soldiers.
On 5 June, the Kyiv regime attempted an offensive in seven directions with the forces of five brigades, was stopped and suffered significant losses, the minister said. According to him, during the attempted offensive on 5 June, Ukraine’s losses amounted to over 1,600 servicemen.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The president of Energoatom, Ukraine’s state energy firm, has reiterated that the damage to the Nova Kakhovka dam does not pose an immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which has been under Russian occupation since the earliest days of the full-scale invasion.
On Telegram, Petro Kotin is quoted as saying:
Both in the pond itself at the ZNPP and in the so-called bowls of the basins … the normal water level is maintained, which was in them before the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam was blown up.
He said that if the water level did fall, there were ways of topping it up. He was quoted as saying:
Since September 2022, the power units of the ZNPP have not been operating, therefore active evaporation of water from the cooling pond does not occur, and there has been no need to feed it yet. And even if there will be no water in the Kakhovsky reservoir at all, the project provides measures to replenish it. One of the latter is the use of underground water from wells at the ZNPP site.
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Oleksandr Syenkevych, the mayor of Mykolaiv, has posted to say that flooding is not happening in his city, which sits on the Pivdennyi Buh River. The Pivdennyi Buh opens out into the Dnipro delta, where flood water from the Nova Kakhovka dam failure will be heading. He posted to Telegram to say:
As of 2pm, the water level in the Mykolaiv area rose by 23cm. The good news: within an hour, that is, until 3pm, there were no changes. We will continue to monitor the situation. There is currently no threat of flooding.
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An air alert has been declared in Dnipropetrovsk region.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires of people, and their pets, being evacuated from Kherson.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a former adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had no doubts that Russia was behind the dam explosion. Arestovych, a key Zelenskiy aide during the first year of the war, resigned from his official post in January after saying a Russian missile that killed dozens had in fact been shot down by Ukrainian air defence. Speaking on the sidelines of a forum of Russian opposition politicians in Brussels, he said:
I’m 110% sure it was the Russians, you can tell even by the chronology of their announcements. At 6am their military bloggers and their Kherson ‘governor’ were saying ‘we’ve blown it up and we’ll flood their soldiers on the islands in the Dnipro’ and then there was a sudden change of message.
There could be two reasons why they did it. One is simply to sabotage [our military’s] capability to cross the Dnipro. The second reason would be to show the world the possible consequences of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, to say ‘hold back the Ukrainians’ and show how bad the consequences could be. It fits very well with recent statements from China, from [Hungarian prime minister Viktor] Orbán, [Putin’s press secretary Dmitry] Peskov, that we are ready for a peaceful resolution. They are very scared of the counteroffensive.
For now we don’t have enough facts to say which of the two reasons is the primary one.
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Pjotr Sauer has spoken to people living in Nova Kakhovka about the dam explosion:
Two residents living in Nova Kakhovka, the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city where a dam was blown up overnight, told the Guardian that they heard loud explosions at about 2am.
“I was woken up by a very loud noise,” said Tatyana, who declined to give her full name. She said she heard a noise that sounded like water flowing shortly after the initial blast.
Yelena, another resident in the city, said she was woken up by what she thought was an explosion at about 2am. “We have become used to loud bangs, so I did not think it was anything serious,” she said. “It is hard to know for sure where the blast came from.”
Vladimir Leontiev, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, said the town had been “completely flooded” hours after the accident. Videos on social media showed swans swimming through the flooded central square of the city.
Leontiev told a Russian-state news channel that the water in the town rose to over 36 feet, and some people along the riverbank were being evacuated.
Some locals on the ground described a chaotic scene. “Everyone is left to fend for themselves, there is no organised evacuation,” said Gleb, who was looking for ways to leave the city.
Updated
Russia’s vocal military bloggers and other war hawks have been spinning the destruction of the dam at Nova Kakhovska as either a Ukrainian diversion or a tactic meant to sweep away Russian defences on the left bank of the Dnipro River before their counteroffensive.
Igor Girkin, a former leader of Russian proxy forces in east Ukraine, wrote on his popular Telegram blog that the dam’s failure could “wash away our forces on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro below [Nova Kakhovka]. That would also ‘wash away’ all of our defensive fortifications, all the minefields, all the warehouses with ammunition would be flooded, it would fully or partially destroy all the property that they didn’t manage to pack up and ship away (and that would be quite a bit, unfortunately).”
Although they often come into conflict with the military, most seem to have endorsed the Kremlin line of “deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side”, as claimed by the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
But others have deviated from the party line. In a video, Yegor Guzenko, a popular commentator who has fought in the war, smiled broadly as he said he had predicted many times before that the dam would eventually become a target.
“I won’t say who blew it up,” he said. “But from a tactical point of view, the [Ukrainians] can forget about the offensive in the Kherson direction.
“If the evacuation [of Russian military personnel] goes well and without losses then we can blow up all the fucking dams on the Dnipro River if it fucking suits us.”
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Julian Borger, our world affairs editor, and Dan Sabbagh, our defence and security editor, describe the devastation unleashed by the collapse of Nova Kakhovka dam.
Aerial footage showed the dam missing a broad mid-section with the water from the reservoir behind, which had been at record levels, pouring over it and roaring downstream. Towns along its path were inundated, complete houses could be seen floating away in the waters, while countless pets and wild animals scrambled to survive.
The disaster will have damaging effects that could last for generations, from the immediate potential for loss of life to the thousands of people forced to abandon their homes and farms. It is expected to have a catastrophic impact on the ecology of the region and will sweep mines from the banks of the Dnipro into villages and farmland downstream.
Read more here: Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam near Kherson
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Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, claims that Russia is shelling areas in southern Kherson where people are being evacuated, leaving two police officers wounded.
“The Russian military continue to shell territory where evacuation measures are being carried out. An hour ago, two police officers were wounded in the area. Shelling continues at the moment,” Klymenko told Ukrainian television.
European leaders must not be naive to the divisions Russian propaganda can cause in communities hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees, a special adviser to the EU has said.
Unveiling a report on how Ukrainians fleeing the war have fared in the EU, Lodewijk Asscher said that “solidarity is alive and kicking” but added that societies need to be on guard against “solidarity fatigue”, particularly towards more vulnerable refugees.
Around 4 million refugees remain in the EU, down from a peak of 16 million, with 11 million returning to Ukraine and 1 million moving to other countries, mainly Canada and the US, says the report, titled Integration of People Fleeing Ukraine in the EU.
Of the 3.8 million seeking protection under special EU laws, more than half were hosted by Germany and Poland, which accounted for 2 million refugees.
The highest number per capita of domestic population are being hosted by Estonia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria.
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Russia says it has launched a criminal investigation into the blowing up of Nova Kakhovka dam, Reuters reports.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that it had launched a criminal investigation into the overnight destruction of the hydroelectric dam which sits in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.
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Ukraine's foreign ministry calls for urgent meeting of UN security council to discuss dam incident
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has called for an urgent meeting of the UN security council to discuss what it called a Russian “terrorist act against Ukrainian critical infrastructure” on the Nova Kakhovka dam.
In a statement, the ministry also called for the UN atomic agency’s board of governors to discuss the incident and demanded new sanctions on Russia from the G7 and the EU, with a particular focus on the Russian missile industry and nuclear sector.
The ministry also called on the EU to engage its the civil protection mechanism which can deliver aid to those in need following a natural or human-made disaster.
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The EU has condemned the destruction of Nova Kakhovka dam, calling it a “horrific and barbaric” escalation of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Peter Stano, the European Commission’s spokesperson, said: ”“This is a new sign of escalation, bringing the horrific and barbaric nature of Russian aggression against Ukraine to unprecedented levels.”
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Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, called the breach of the dam in the city a “terrorist act” and blamed Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Speaking to Russian state television, Leontyev said: “This crime cannot be written off. This is a terrorist act directed against civilians, Ukrainians did it.”
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Kremlin accuses Ukraine of deliberately sabotaging Nova Kakhovka dam
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of sabotaging the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River, which sits in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine, to distract attention from a supposedly “faltering” counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reports.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, told reporters: “We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side.” He said Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation.
He said the destruction of the dam was intended to deprive Russian-controlled Crimea of the fresh water it receives from the reservoir through the North Crimean Canal, and to distract attention from the counteroffensive.
“Apparently, this sabotage is also connected with the fact that having started large-scale offensive actions two days ago, now the Ukrainian armed forces are not achieving their goals – these offensive actions are faltering.”
Asked about Ukrainian allegations that Russia had destroyed the dam, Peskov said: “We can strongly reject this. We officially declare that here we are definitely talking about deliberate sabotage from the Ukrainian side.”
Peskov said the sabotage could “potentially have very serious consequences for several tens of thousands of residents of the region”.
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Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia, has called the blowing up of the Nova Kakhovka dam a war crime.
She said on Twitter that the “terrorist state Russia has now turned water into a weapon”.
“Destroying [Nova Kakhovka] dam is a war crime affecting countless civilians and bringing ecocide and mass destruction,” she said.
Terrorist state Russia has now turned water into a weapon. Destroying #NovaKakhovka dam is a war crime affecting countless civilians and bringing ecocide and mass destruction.
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) June 6, 2023
We must stop this cycle of aggression by helping Ukraine to victory and delivering full accountability.
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Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, has called the blowing up of the Nova Kakhovka dam “a fundamentally new stage of Russian aggression”.
He said on Twitter that Russia had openly declared “its true goal – the destruction of Ukraine, killing Ukrainians, destroying the economy and life support structures.”
The blow-up of the Kakhovka HPP by russians is a fundamentally new stage of russian aggression. The complete and final dismantling of the whole false ideological kremlin construct took place: “liberation of Ukraine”, “fight against the Nazis”, “targeting only military objects”…
— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) June 6, 2023
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Summary of the day so far …
The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River, and called for people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding. Ukrahydroenergo said the hydoelectric power plant at the dam had been blown up from the inside and was irreparable.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said about 16,000 people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the river. He said people were being evacuated for districts upstream of Kherson city and would be taken by bus to the city and then by train to Mykolaiv, and to other Ukrainian cities including Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi and Kyiv.
Occupying Russian authorities in the town of Nova Kakhovka initially denied anything had happened to the dam, then blamed the collapse on Ukrainian shelling. Vladimir Leontyev told the Tass news agency it was a serious terrorist act and a catastrophe, which “was created by the Ukrainian authorities and those who govern them”. Leontyev said part of the town had been disconnected from power supplies for safety reasons, and about 300 houses had been evacuated.
The areas most under threat of flooding are the islands along the course of the Dnipro downstream of Nova Kakhovka and much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson. Earlier modelling of such a disaster suggested Kherson city would not take the brunt of the flood, but the harbour, the docklands and an island in the south of the city are likely to be inundated. It is unclear how many people could lose their homes. Andrey Alekseyenko, one of the Russian-installed officials in occupied Kherson, has posted to Telegram to say that up to 22,000 people are in the flood plains in Russian-controlled territory.
Denys Sukhanov, a humanitarian volunteer who works in the Ukrainian-controlled Kherson territory, told the broadcaster Suspilne that “Kherson urgently needs people who will perform the duties of volunteers to coordinate actions at evacuation points, receiving people, boarding buses, resettlement and feeding.”
There seems to be no immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam 200km downstream, according to Ukrainian and UN experts. Water from the reservoir affected by the destruction of the dam is used to supply the plant’s cooling systems.
Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called the destruction of the dam “probably Europe’s largest technological disaster in decades” and a “heinous war crime”.
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, who is in Ukraine, blamed the destruction on Russia’s invasion. “I’ve heard reports of the explosion on the dam and the risk of flooding. It’s too early to make any kind of meaningful assessment of the details. But it’s worth remembering that the only reason this is an issue at all is because of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
The dam traverses Ukraine’s enormous Dnipro River, holding back a huge reservoir of water. The dam is 30 metres tall and hundreds of metres wide. It was built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. Water from the reservoir supplies the Crimean peninsula to the south, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has suggested that the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam was the fault of “Russian terrorists”. Zelenskiy said in a post on Twitter, “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 metre should be left to them, because they use every metre for terror.”
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Here is an updated report from our video team on the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
UN atomic agency chief issues statement on potential impact at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
The chief of the UN’s atomic agency, Rafael Grossi, has issued a statement about the Nova Kakhovka dam destruction and its potential impact on nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
He said a planned visit to the plant would go ahead next week, and called on both sides in the conflict to do nothing to further endanger safety at the plant, drawing particular attention to the on-site cooling pond.
The IAEA’s director general said:
The IAEA staff on the site have been informed that the damage to the Nova Kakhovka dam is currently leading to about 5cm/hour reduction in the height of the reservoir.
The main line of cooling water is fed from the reservoir and pumped up through channels near the thermal power plant to the site. It is estimated that the water through this route should last for a few days.
Water in the reservoir was at around 16.4 metres at 8am. If it drops below 12.7 metres then it can no longer be pumped.
The ZNPP is making all efforts to pump as much water into its cooling channels and related systems as possible. In addition, non-essential consumers of water are being stopped at ZNPP to reduce the consumption of water.
ZNPP management is discussing further measures to be implemented.
There are a number of alternative sources of water.
A main one is the large cooling pond next to the site that by design is kept above the height of the reservoir. As the reactors have been shut down for many months, it is estimated that this pond will be sufficient to provide water for cooling for some months. The agency will confirm this very shortly.
It is therefore vital that this cooling pond remains intact. Nothing must be done to potentially undermine its integrity. I call on all sides to ensure nothing is done to undermine that.
My trip to ZNPP next week was planned and now it is essential. I will go.
Updated
The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine will not prevent Ukrainian troops from advancing, Reuters reports a senior Ukrainian commander said on Tuesday.
“As for preventing our offensive actions, the military command has taken into full account such treacherous enemy actions, and it should not prevent our advance in those directions where there may be spillage of water,” Serhiy Naev, commander of the joint forces of the armed forces of Ukraine, was quoted as saying by the state news agency Ukrinform.
Updated
While attention has understandably focused on the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, clear-up operations have also been carried out in Kharkiv after a Russian strike.
Dan Sabbagh, our defence and security editor, offers this analysis of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam:
Although it remains not yet confirmed exactly how the dam was blown, it is the Russian military who, cynically, would probably think they have the most to gain.
Ukraine will have to deal with a destroyed dam plus the long-term environmental and humanitarian consequences. Experts fear it will wipe out islands in the delta and low-lying settlements, mostly on the southern bank. There are about 16,000 people estimated to be in the critical zone on the Ukrainian side of the river. Such predictable impacts mean it is likely to be a war crime, as defined in the Geneva conventions, if its breach causes “release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses” to civilians.
If it is the case, as initially reported, that water levels have been built up to a 30-year high in recent weeks, that could suggest a degree of forethought that would only bolster a future legal case.
The obvious military point is that Russia feared an amphibious attack across the Dnipro delta. Some of Ukraine’s armed forces have been receiving marine training from the UK, suggesting that, at the very least, Kyiv wanted to keep the option open of trying what would have been a relative risky attack that, if successful, could have opened up the option of a more direct strike towards Crimea – or diverting Russian forces away from the southern front further east in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.
Russian defensive positions downstream, as mapped from satellite imagery, have already been concentrated on higher ground. The breach of the dam is an uncertain event, and it will take some days before it is clear where the new river line will be – and whether the fortifications are in appropriate positions.
Widening the Dnipro River from hundreds of metres to several kilometres makes the task of crossing in strength all the harder at the delta. Russia still has its air force available to make a river crossing difficult, and as the battle for Kherson in November showed, it is difficult to keep a bridgehead across the country’s central river supplied.
However, it is also the case that the river is likely to narrow upstream, south of Zaporizhzhia. That may also create some military opportunities for Kyiv. What is certain is that as with the impact on civilians and the environment, all the consequences are some way from being played out.
Updated
Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine to prevent Ukrainian forces from crossing the Dnipro River, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command said on Tuesday.
“This is a hysterical reaction,” Natalia Humeniuk told an online briefing, Reuters reports. “They were aware that the movement of the defence forces would take place, and in this way tried to influence the defence forces so that the crossing of the [river], which they feared, would not happen.”
There are limited crossing points over the river. Ukraine holds the right bank, to the north, while Russia continues to occupy the left bank and the south of Kherson oblast.
Updated
A state of emergency has been declared by local Moscow-backed authorities in the Nova Kakhovka district of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region after the dam breach, Reuters reports, citing Tass.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has criticised the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, tweeting:
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam puts thousands of civilians in danger, leaving many with no homes and in dire humanitarian need. Civilians and civilian infrastructure are not a target.
The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam puts thousands of civilians in danger, leaving many with no homes and in dire humanitarian need.
— OCHA Ukraine (@OCHA_Ukraine) June 6, 2023
Civilians and civilian infrastructure are #NotATarget! pic.twitter.com/f79AsT8KvT
Its social media team are maybe not entirely in lockstep with that of its parent organisation UN, which has run into vocal social media criticism for earlier using Twitter to promote today as “Russian Language Day”.
Tuesday is Russian Language Day.
— United Nations (@UN) June 6, 2023
Follow @UnitedNationsRU for updates on the UN's work in Russian. https://t.co/sX56IduqmW
The Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko was among those to reply to the tweet, asking: “Do you want to write anything about the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station? Or will you celebrate the Russian language day?”
Updated
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is in Ukraine, where he has been visiting the Halo Trust in the Kyiv region, an NGO that works in demining.
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Our community team are asking for your witness reports of the aftermath of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam if you live in the region. Details of how to contact them can be found here:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted details from the emergency national council meeting (NSDC) this morning to respond to the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. Ukraine’s president posted to Telegram to say:
I held an urgent meeting of the national security council.
Overnight [at] 02.50am, Russian terrorists carried out an internal detonation of the structures of the Kakhovskaya HPP [hydroelectric power plant]. About 80 settlements are in the flooding zone.
It was ordered to carry out evacuation from risk areas and to provide drinking water to all cities and villages that were supplied with water from the Kakhovsky reservoir.
We do everything to save people. All services, military, government, are involved.
At the NSDC meeting, a set of international and security measures was agreed upon to hold Russia accountable for this terrorist attack.
Updated
The Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, has condemned the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam and offered Moldova’s support. She tweeted:
I strongly condemn the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam this morning. Russia’s targeting of critical infrastructure amounts to war crimes. President Zelenskiy, we stand ready to provide assistance in response to the floods and support efforts to mitigate the impact.
I strongly condemn the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Dam this morning.
— Maia Sandu (@sandumaiamd) June 6, 2023
Russia's targeting of critical infrastructure amounts to war crimes.
President @ZelenskyyUa, we stand ready to provide assistance in response to the floods and support efforts to mitigate the impact
Updated
Ukrainian official: Russia shelling Kherson while evacuation taking place
The Russian military is shelling Kherson with artillery, while the population is being evacuated in the city, the ministry of internal affairs reported. Two police officers received shrapnel wounds, Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Here is another image that has come through of the damage at the Nova Kakhovka dam.
Video is circulating on social media that appears to show the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant has been completely submerged by rising waters of the Dnipro River.
Destroyed Kakhovka HPP went underwater.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 6, 2023
Water level in Dnipro river continues to rise. pic.twitter.com/7S2RjdSLnJ
The Guardian has not independently verified the video.
Updated
The Telegram channel of Russian state-owned news agency Tass is carrying some quotes from the Russian-imposed acting governor of occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo. It reports:
Large-scale evacuation of people will not be required in the Kherson region after the destruction of the structures of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, said Saldo.
The destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station led to the flow of a large, but not critical amount of water along the [Dnipro] River, this will not prevent the Russian forces from protecting the left bank, Saldo noted.
It also quotes the Russian-imposed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, claiming:
The situation at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station is a consequence of Ukrainian armed forces strikes on the station, which have continued daily since the summer of 2022, the authorities said.
The Kakhovka HPP continues to collapse, water is discharged uncontrollably, the head of Nova Kakhovka said.
Updated
Shebekino district in Russia’s Belgorod region is being shelled, local authorities told residents on Tuesday. Reuters reports that in messages via social media, residents were warned to take cover in cellars.
The destruction of a dam in a Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine is an attempt by Moscow to “raise the stakes” in its full-scale invasion and stoke fears of a nuclear catastrophe, a senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.
“Today, the world must understand that this is an attempt by terrorists to raise the stakes and scare everyone with a possible nuclear disaster,” Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration, wrote on Telegram, Reuters reports.
'No immediate nuclear safety risk' at Zaporizhzhia after destruction of Nova Kakhovka dam
There seems to be no immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), from the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam 120 miles downstream, according to Ukrainian and UN experts.
The Ukrainian nuclear energy corporation, Energoatom, put out a statement saying the situation at the plant was under control, and the International Atomic Energy Agency said its experts at the site were monitoring the situation and there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk”.
But there are long-term concerns over safety and the possibility of the plant operating again in the coming years.
Oleksiy, a former reactor operator and shift supervisor at the plant, pointed out that all six reactors had been shut down since the plant found itself on the frontline after the Russian invasion.
Five of the reactors are in “cold shutdown”, turned off completely and being cooled, and one is in “hot shutdown”, kept at 200-250C, so that it will be easier to restart when conditions allowed, and to supply hot water to the neighbouring town of Enerhodar.
Oleksiy, who left after the Russians occupied the plant in March last year and is now elsewhere in Ukraine, said the last reactor should now be shut down, and that the plant had sufficient resources for now to keep all reactor cores cool.
“I think that the damage of the dam doesn’t impact the plant immediately, because they are being cooled by the safety systems located at the plant, which are spray systems,” he said. “The plant has a cooling lake, about two or three kilometres in diameter.”
The Energoatom statement said the cooling lake was filled and was current at 16.6 metres, “which is sufficient for the power plant’s needs”.
Mariana Budjeryn, a Ukrainian nuclear scientist, said: “The fact that there’s an artificial pond next to the ZNPP where water can be maintained above the reservoir level and the fact that the reactors are in cold shutdown, offers some reassurance and increased time to respond if the ZNPP starts getting affected.”
But Budjeryn, who is senior research associate at Harvard University, added: “The bigger problem – who is going to do it? ZNPP is already down staffed to bare bones.”
Oleksiy said that over time water would evaporate from the cooling lake and if it could not be filled from the vast reservoir that had been created upstream of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the turbines and the power plant could not be operated.
Budjeryn had another sobering thought about the implications.
“If the Russians would do this with Kakhovka, there’s no guarantee they won’t blow up the reactor units at ZNPP that are also reportedly mined – three of the six,” she said. “It wouldn’t cause a Chornobyl, but massive disruption, local contamination and long-term damage to Ukraine.”
Updated
Tass reports that the Russian-imposed head of the settlement of Nova Kakhovka says the water has risen by 10 metres.
Updated
Here is some of the earlier video footage of the damage at the Nova Kakhovka dam.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, carries this latest report on the consequences of the damaged to the Nova Kakhovka dam:
Due to the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP, there is a threat of flooding up to 80 settlements, prime minister [Denys] Shmyhal said.
As of now, more than 10 settlements have been completely or partially flooded, reported the Kherson regional authority. About 16,000 people are in the critical zone on the right bank of the Kherson region.
Local authorities are evacuating residents from potential flood zones. At 12pm an evacuation train will leave Kherson for Mykolaiv.
Suspilne also provided this graphic showing the likely affected settlements.
Updated
Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, has issued a strong statement after the destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant, which Ukrhydroenergo claims was destroyed by an explosion from inside the turbine hall. Kostin tweeted:
Russia can only destroy and kill. And will stop at nothing. Blowing up the Kakhovskaya HPP is another proof of this and an international crime.
Today, the cornered occupiers are killing and leaving thousands of people homeless, whom they wanted to “integrate into the Russian Federation” just yesterday. Cannibalistic “scorched earth” tactics worthy of Hitler.
Anyone who still thinks that it is possible to talk about something with an aggressor should remember the streams of dirty water that wash away the homes of people who were sleeping peacefully. The end of the criminal Russian regime can only be one – defeat and a tribunal.
Росія здатна лише руйнувати та вбивати. І не зупиниться ні перед чим. Підрив Каховської ГЕС — черговий доказ цього і міжнародний злочин. Сьогодні загнані в кут окупанти вбивають та лишають без домівок тисячі людей, яких ще вчора хотіли «інтегрувати до рф». Людожерська тактика… pic.twitter.com/PHpqSqM4K6
— Andriy Kostin (@AndriyKostinUa) June 6, 2023
Updated
The Russian-imposed mayor of the occupied settlement of Nova Kakhovk near the damaged dam has blamed Ukraine for the incident. Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is carrying quotes from Vladimir Leontyev for Russia’s domestic audience, in which it claims:
Leontyev said that there was no explosion at the station, but night strikes led to the destruction and water began to uncontrollably be discharged downstream. According to him, the armed forces of Ukraine continue to shell the city. The blow to the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, presumably, was delivered from an MLRS [multiple launch rocket system].
Leontyev said that it is still impossible to predict whether the Kakhovskaya HPP will continue to collapse. According to him, the hydroelectric power plant has suffered serious damage and it is presumably impossible to repair it.
As the mayor added, the destruction at the station will lead to problems in the delivery of water to the Crimea. At the same time, the destruction does not pose any critical danger for the Zaporizhzhia NPP [nuclear power plant].
Leontyev called the incident a serious terrorist act and a catastrophe, which “was created by the Ukrainian authorities and those who govern them.” He said that the consequences will still be studied, the main task now is to help citizens.
Updated
Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka dam in a Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine “in a panic”, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said on Tuesday.
“The occupiers blew up the dam of the Kakhovka reservoir in a panic – this is an obvious act of terrorism and a war crime, which will be evidence in an international tribunal,” Reuters reports it said in a statement on Telegram.
Updated
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, who is in Ukraine, blamed the destruction of the dam in southern Ukraine on Russia’s invasion.
“I’ve heard reports of the explosion on the dam and the risk of flooding. It’s too early to make any kind of meaningful assessment of the details. But it’s worth remembering that the only reason this is an issue at all is because of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” he told Reuters.
“We’ll continue to assess the developing situation, but the best thing Russia could do now is withdraw their troops immediately.”
Updated
Denys Sukhanov, a humanitarian volunteer who works in the Ukrainian-controlled Kherson territory, has told Suspilne that “Kherson urgently needs people who will perform the duties of volunteers to coordinate actions at evacuation points, receiving people, boarding buses, resettlement and feeding.”
A Russian-installed official in the town of Nova Kakhovka said on Tuesday residents of about 300 houses had been evacuated after the nearby dam was breached, state-owned news agency Tass reported.
Reuters reports that Tass also quoted Nova Kakhovka’s Russian-installed mayor, Vladimir Leontyev, as saying that part of the town had been disconnected from power supplies for safety reasons.
Updated
Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant completely destroyed, says Ukrainian state broadcaster
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, is reporting that the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant was completely destroyed “as a result of the explosion of the engine room from the inside” and is not repairable. It cites Ukrahydroenergo.
More details soon …
Updated
Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam near Kherson
Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh report from Kyiv for the Guardian:
The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River, and called for people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding.
As aerial footage circulated on social media, showing most of the dam wall washed away and a massive surge of water heading downstream, the army’s Southern Operational Command put up a Facebook post accusing “Russian occupation troops” of blowing up the hydroelectric dam.
The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said about 16,000 people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the river. He said people were being evacuated for districts upstream of Kherson city and would be taken to bus to the city and then by train to Mykolaiv, and on to other Ukrainian cities.
The disaster happened on the second day of Ukrainian offensive operations likely to mark the early stages of a mass counteroffensive. It could affect any Ukrainian plans for an amphibious assault across the river.
Local Russian authorities in the town of Nova Kakhovka initially denied that anything had happened to the dam, then blamed the collapse on Ukrainian shelling. Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed official from the Kherson emergency services as saying the dam had collapsed from structural weakness under water pressure.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called an emergency meeting of his national security council on Tuesday in the wake of the disaster.
The areas most under threat of flooding are the islands along the course of the river downstream of Nova Kakhovka and much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson. Earlier modelling of such a disaster suggested Kherson city would not take the brunt of the flood, but the harbour, the docklands and an island in the south of the city are likely to be inundated. It is unclear how many people would lose their homes.
There could be two further dramatic side-effects: the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant upstream could lose access to water for cooling as the reservoir drains away, and the water supply to Crimea could be severely affected.
Read more here: Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam near Kherson
Updated
Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former minister and president of the Kyiv School of Economics, notes that the peak water from the breach of the dam would be expected at 11am local time (9am BST). He suggests that the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River is more at risk.
Kherson is already flooded.
— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) June 6, 2023
The peak waters are expected in 2 hours at 11am local time.
About 16 000 people are affected. They are being evacuated.
However, the situation is likely worse on the left bank occupied by Russia. It will be hit harder, limited communication. 1/ pic.twitter.com/Tu0tLxLlnP
Andrey Alekseyenko, one of the Russian-installed officials in occupied Kherson, has posted to Telegram to say that up to 22,000 people are in the flood plains in Russian-controlled territory, but that “everything is under control”.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that the Ukrainian military claims to have shot down a Russian Ka-52 helicopter in the direction of Shakhtarsk on Monday, citing the general staff.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Here is my colleague Jonathan Yerushalmy on why the dam is so significant and poses such a threat:
The dam traverses Ukraine’s enormous Dnipro River, holding back a huge reservoir of water. The dam is 30 metres tall and hundreds of metres wide. It was built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.
The reservoir it contains holds an estimated 18 cubic kilometres of water, about the same volume as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Bursting the dam could send a wall of water flooding settlements below it, including Kherson, which Ukrainian forces recaptured in late 2022.
Soon after Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the dam, the head of the Kherson region urged residents to evacuate the area, warning that “water will reach a critical level in five hours”.
Water from the reservoir supplies the Crimean peninsula to the south, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, to the north.
It also helps power the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant. Destroying the dam would add to Ukraine’s ongoing energy problems, after Russia spent weeks earlier this year targeting vital infrastructure.
It would also probably wreck the canal system that irrigates much of southern Ukraine, including Crimea.
Read more here: Nova Kakhovka Dam – everything you need to know about Ukraine’s strategically important reservoir
Updated
About 16,000 people could be affected by potential flood from dam, says former minister
Anton Gerashchenko, a former minister and an adviser to the interior ministry, has suggested on social media that about 16,000 people may be affected by any potential flood from the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
About 16,000 people are in "critical zone" in Kherson region on the right bank of the Dnieper river - head of Kherson regional military administration.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 6, 2023
Evacuation trains will take people to safety from Kherson. pic.twitter.com/rmltVcc9yI
The video footage in his tweet has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has said that “only force” can solve the “global threat” posed by Russia, in a message on the Telegram app. He posted:
The destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP is the largest man-made disaster in the world in recent decades, which kills the environment and will negatively affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the years to come.
The insane goal of stopping the defence forces’ advance and avoiding defeat and disgrace drives Kremlin criminals. They are willing to do anything to raise the stakes in this war.
Today’s Russia is a global threat. Only force can solve this problem.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
I’m handing over to my colleague Martin Belam who will bring you the latest from the aftermath of this very distressing development in the war.
Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister has called the destruction of the dam “probably Europe’s largest technological disaster in decades” and a “heinous war crime”:
Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam inflicting probably Europe’s largest technological disaster in decades and putting thousands of civilians at risk. This is a heinous war crime. The only way to stop Russia, the greatest terrorist of the 21st century, is to kick it out of Ukraine.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) June 6, 2023
The Financial Times’ Moscow bureau chief has shared modelling done previously on how the dam’s destruction is likely to affect Kherson:
The second image here shows the likely consequences of blowing up the Kakhovka dam, including putting much of Kherson – a city Putin declared was part of Russia not nine months ago! – under water https://t.co/lKYE8natIT
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 6, 2023
Updated
Prof Hubert Chanson, from the University of QLD School of Civil Engineering, expects that a flood of water from the destroyed Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine will put people at risk of drowning and slow military action further downstream.
“Anyone living in low-lying areas downstream of the dam could be drowned,” he says. “Significant flooding is likely to happen, depending on the volume of the dam at the time.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the destruction of the dam is to slow down military action further downstream. A large body of water behind a low-lying dam could cause a long-lasting flood that is not going to end in a couple of days.”
Restoration of the dam is “not going to be a quick fix”, Chanson says.
Repair will include blocking the bridge and the opening in the dam, typically by dumping rocks or concrete blocks.
“To do so would be a matter of civil engineering,” he says. “You can only do so if in a secure environment, if one party is in charge of the dam and has access to the dam site.”
Updated
Dam's destruction 'may have negative consequences' for Zaporizhzia, but situation 'under control'
Energoatom, the Ukrainian state nuclear energy company, has responded to the damage to the dam, saying it “may have negative consequences for the [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant], but the situation is under control”.
It has blamed the dam’s flooding on Russian forces, saying, “On the night of June 6, 2023, the Russian invaders blew up the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP.”
It explained that the “rapidly decreasing” water levels in the reservoir posed an “additional threat to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP.”
For now, however, the nuclear power station’s cooling pond was full, it said.
Water from the Kakhovsky reservoir is necessary for the station to receive power for turbine capacitors and safety systems of the ZNPP. The station’s cooling pond is now full: as of 8am, the water level is 16.6 metres, which is sufficient for the station’s needs.
Energoatom monitors the situation and follows the actions of workers at the ZNPP together with other international organisations present at the plant, in particular, the IAEA.
Any changes will be promptly notified.
Updated
Zelenskiy blames dam 'destruction' on 'Russian terrorists'
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has suggested that what he called the “destruction” of the Nova Kakhovka dam was the fault of “Russian terrorists”.
Zelenskiy said in a post on Twitter, “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 metre should be left to them, because they use every metre for terror.”
He added: “All services are working. I have convened the national security and defence council.”
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
Updated
What has been happening to the dam this year?
In May, residents in a nearby village reported ongoing flooding which they blamed on Russia’s occupation of Nova Kakhovka. Speaking to the Reuters news agency, locals said the water level had begun to rise in April, sometimes by up to 30cm a day, and had remained elevated since.
Ukrainian officials said the “rise of the Dnieper’s water level, as a result of which settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region were flooded, is linked to the Russian occupation of the Kakhovka dam”.
But they added that they were unable to say what exactly Russian forces were doing at the dam because they did not have access themselves.
A Russian energy official also warned in May that the dam risked being overwhelmed by record-high water levels.
Updated
This unverified footage reportedly shows the view from the top of the dam’s generator hall:
Additional footage from on top of the generator hall of the breached Kakhovka dam pic.twitter.com/QGNhvUG0Xy
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 6, 2023
Summary
If you’re just joining us, a vast Soviet-era dam in the Russian-controlled part of southern Ukraine was blown on Tuesday, unleashing a flood of water across the war zone, according to Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Both sides blamed the other for destroying the dam.
This is Helen Sullivan with the latest. You can get in touch with me on Twitter here.
Here is what we know so far:
Unverified videos on social media showed water surging through the remains of the dam, with bystanders expressing their shock.
Ukraine’s national police urged people in affected villages to evacuate. The police force named the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Lyovo, Tyaginka, Poniativka, Ivanovka, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Prydniprovske, Sadove and partly the city of Kherson – Korabel Island. “Units of the national police and the state emergency service of the Kherson region were alerted to alert and evacuate the civilian population from potential flooding zones on the right bank of the Dnieper River” the police force said on Telegram.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will hold an emergency meeting, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said on Twitter on Tuesday.
The Russian news agency Tass reports, citing emergency services, that 80 settlements may be affected by flooding. The damage to the dam will also lead to problems with water supplies to Crimea, Tass cites the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka as saying.
The dam, 30 metres tall and 3.2km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro River as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. It holds a reservoir of about the same volume as the Great Salt Lake in Utah and supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces blew up the dam. “The Kakhovka [dam] was blown up by the Russian occupying forces,” the south command of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Tuesday on its Facebook page. “The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified.”
Russian news agencies said the dam, controlled by Russian forces, had been destroyed in shelling, while a Russian-installed official said it was a terrorist attack – Russian shorthand for an attack by Ukraine.
Updated
Zelenskiy aide says Nova Kakhovka dam blast is 'ecocide'
Russia’s destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine represents an “ecocide”, but national and regional officials are working to ensure the safety of local residents, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration said on Tuesday.
Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram that Russia’s actions also present a threat to the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, without elaborating
Has the dam been threatened before?
Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Nova Kakhovka dam has been earmarked as a potential target for both its strategic importance - as well as the damage that its destruction would unleash. It was captured by Russia at the start of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, and has been held by it ever since.
In October, as Ukraine was in the midst of reclaiming large parts of occupied Kherson, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the west to warn Russia not to blow up the dam, warning that it would flood a large area of southern Ukraine. At the time, he claimed that Russian forces had planted explosives inside the dam.
Zelenskiy said “destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster,” and compared such an act to the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Ukraine military intelligence said “the scale of the ecological disaster [would] go far beyond the borders of Ukraine and affect the entire Black Sea region”.
At the same time, Russia accused Kyiv of rocketing the dam and planning to destroy it.
After Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November, images emerged of some significant damage to the dam. Russia had accused Ukraine of shelling the dam in its campaign to recapture Kherson.
Here is more video of the dam flooding, via the Kyiv post:
Ukraine's Southern Operational Command reported early on June 6 that Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 6, 2023
"The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified," the military said on their… pic.twitter.com/xIAEivrOTq
Zelenskiy to hold emergency meeting over dam flooding
Ukraine’s National Security Council has announced that Zelenskiy will hold an emergency meeting over the dam blast.
Updated
On 25 May Reuters reported that Ukrhydroenergo, which owns the dam, had blamed high water levels in the Dnieper river on Russia.
“The rise of the Dnieper’s water level, as a result of which settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region were flooded, is linked to the Russian occupation of the Kakhovka dam,” state company said in a statement.
It said the 17-metre (56-foot) level in the pool held back by the dam was a metre higher than normal for this time of year, Reuters reported.
But the company said it was unable to say what exactly Russian forces were doing at the dam because it did not have access itself.
The dam was at “unprecedentedly” high levels before today, the Washington Post’s Evan Hill reports:
Prior to whatever happened overnight, the Kakhovka Reservoir had reached unprecedentedly high levels. This was likely due to Russian forces keeping too few gates open, the NYT reported, just months after letting the reservoir sink to historic lows: https://t.co/g9sGjPNTt9 pic.twitter.com/mKuGFakb3M
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) June 6, 2023
Washington Post investigative journalist Evan Hill has shared satellite images showing what appears to be evidence that a section of the dam was damaged or destroyed on 5 June:
New satellite imagery of the Khakovka dam from June 5 shows evidence that a section of the roadway and sluice gates had been recently damaged or destroyed.
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) June 6, 2023
(Left: May 28, Right: June 5)
📸: @Maxar pic.twitter.com/o6StIwIoJr
Here is a larger image showing the dam on 28 May this year:
And yesterday at 12:15pm local time:
80 settlements may be affected by flooding - Tass
Russian news agency Tass reports, citing emergency services, that 80 settlements may be affected by flooding.
The damage to the dam will also lead to problems with water supplies to Crimea, Tass cites the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka as saying.
Updated
Here is the unverified footage of the dam flooding being shared widely on social media, including by Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine:
❗️росіяни підірвали Каховську ГЕС.
— Антон Геращенко (@Gerashchenko7) June 6, 2023
Як повідомив Олександр Прокудін, голова Херсонської ОВА, місцевих мешканців уже почали евакуювати із потенційних районів затоплення. pic.twitter.com/7tBreBQqxJ
National Police of Ukraine urge evacuations and for electrical appliances to be turned off
Ukraine’s National Police force are asking people in affected villages to evacuate.
The Police said on Telegram a moment ago:
Units of the National Police and the State Emergency Service of the Kherson region were alerted to alert and evacuate the civilian population from potential flooding zones on the right bank of the Dnieper River, namely: the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Lyovo, Tyaginka, Poniativka, Ivanovka, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Prydniprovske, Sadove and partly the city of Kherson - Korabel Island.
The water level is rising and everyone who is in the danger zone must:
🔹turn off all electrical appliances
🔹take documents and essentials
🔹take care of loved ones and pets
🔹 follow the instructions of rescuers and policemen.
Updated
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, has posted more details about evacuations to Telegram. Residents in what he called the “danger zone” were also urged to turn off electrical appliances.
Gerashchenkosaid:
❗️ In the Kherson region, the settlements on the right bank of the Dnieper have been named as being at risk of flooding
Evacuation of the civilian population from potential flood zones on the right bank of the Dnieper River is underway, namely:
▪️ The village of Nikolaevka,
▪️ Olgovka,
▪️ Лёво,
▪️ Tyaginka,
▪️ Ivanivka,
▪️ Ivanovka,
▪️Tokarevka,
▪️ Pridneprovskoye,
▪️Partly the city of Kherson - the island of Korabel.
The water level is rising and everyone who is in the danger zone must:
🔹turn off all electrical appliances,
🔹take documents and essential items,
🔹will take care of loved ones and pets,
🔹 follow the instructions of rescuers and policemen.
Kakhovka dam flooding: what we know so far
Here is a summary of what we know so far, via Reuters:
A vast Soviet-era dam in the Russian controlled part of southern Ukraine was blown on Tuesday, unleashing a flood of water across the war zone, according to both Ukrainian and Russian forces. Both sides blamed the other for destroying the dam.
The dam, 30 metres (yards) tall and 3.2 km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnieper river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. It holds a reservoir of about the same volume as the Great Salt Lake in Utah and also supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is also under Russian control.
Ukraine’s military said that Russian forces blew up the dam. “The Kakhovka (dam) was blown up by the Russian occupying forces,” the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday on its Facebook page. “The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified.”
Russian news agencies said the dam, controlled by Russian forces, had been destroyed in shelling while a Russian-installed official said it was a terrorist attack – Russian shorthand for an attack by Ukraine.
Updated
Why is Kakhovka Dam significant?
The dam traverses Ukraine’s enormous Dnieper River, holding back an enormous reservoir of water. The dam itself is 30 metres tall and hundreds of metres wide. It was built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.
The enormous reservoir that it contains holds about the same volume as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Bursting the dam could send a wall of water flooding settlements below it, including Kherson, which Ukrainian forces recaptured in late 2022.
Water from the reservoir supplies the Crimean peninsula to the south - which was annexed by Russia in 2014 - as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – Europe’s largest – to the north.
It also helps power the Kakhovka hydro-electric plant. Destroying the dam would add to Ukraine’s ongoing energy problems, after Russia spent weeks earlier this year targeting vital infrastructure.
It would also wreck the canal system that irrigates much of southern Ukraine, including Crimea.
Updated
The UK ambassador to Ukraine, Dame Melinda Simmons, has retweeted a post calling what has happened at the dam “An appalling act of ecocide by the Russian regime”.
This reservoir provides the cooling water for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It will take some time for the reservoir to drain to a dangerous level for ZNPP, but the clock is now ticking.
— Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) June 6, 2023
And the destruction downstream will be enormous. https://t.co/3xasMGDD9y
Russian state news agencies report collapse of dam, flooding
The large Nova Kakhovka Dam in the Russia-controlled parts of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine was destroyed and the territory is flooding, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed source close to the matter.
A second state news agency RIA cited the Moscow-installed Mayor of Nova Kakhovka as saying that the upper part of the dam was destroyed by shelling.
The mayor earlier denied that that the dam had been blown up. Tass then quoted him as saying that the destruction of the dam was a “serious terrorist act”.
Neither Reuters nor the Guardian were able to independently verify the reports.
Head of Kherson region says 'evacuations have begun'
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson region, has posted a video to Telegram in which he says that as a result of the damage to the Nova Kahhovka dam, “water will reach a critical level in 5 hours” and that evacuations have begun.
The translation of the video was obtained via Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Gerashchenko posted the video from Prokudin’s Telegram, with the text:
The water will reach a critical level in 5 hours, the evacuation has begun - the head of Kherson OVA
As Alexander Prokudin reported, local residents have already begun to be evacuated from potential flood areas. He confirmed that the [Russians] had blown up the Kakhovskaya HPP and called for them to leave the dangerous places as soon as possible.
The mayor of Nova Kahhovka, a city in Russia-controlled parts of the Ukrainian region of Kherson, denied social media reports that the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnieper River was blown up, Russia’s state RIA news agency reported early on Tuesday.
Russian and Ukrainian social media reported widely in early hours on Tuesday that the dam was destroyed. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Updated
Dam near Kherson blown up by Russian forces, Ukrainian military says
The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s Kherson region was blown up by Russian forces, the South command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday.
“The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified,” the command said on its Facebook page.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
In breaking news: Ukraine’s Southern Military command has accused Russia of “blowing up” the Nova Kakhovka dam near Kherson, “likely” causing flooding. The Guardian has not been able to verify the claim.
Unverified video footage shared on social media on Tuesday morning appeared to show a large amount of water flowing out of the dam.
The mayor of Nova Kahhovka, a city in Russia-controlled parts of the Ukrainian region of Kherson, denied social media reports that the dam was blown up, Russia’s state RIA news agency reported early on Tuesday.
Russian and Ukrainian social media reported widely in early hours on Tuesday that the dam was destroyed. Neither Reuters nor the Guardian have been able to independently verify the reports.
We’ll have more information shortly.
Here are the other key recent developments in the war:
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister has confirmed that in some areas Kyiv’s forces are moving to “offensive actions”, heightening speculation that a counteroffensive is close to launch.
Russia claimed to have repelled a “major offensive” in the Donetsk region and to have killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops, but the claims could not be independently verified. The defence ministry in Moscow said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions from two brigades.
The ministry claimed 250 Ukrainian troops had been killed, and 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured personnel carriers destroyed. It also claimed that Valery Gerasimov, the Russian chief of general staff, had been near the frontlines when the attack was repelled. The Russian defence ministry has consistently made exaggerated claims about the casualties its forces have inflicted.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed on Monday what he called “the news we have been waiting for” from troops in Bakhmut, but gave no further details. “I am grateful to each soldier, to all our defenders, men and women, who have given us today the news we have been waiting for. Fine job, soldiers in the Bakhmut sector!” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
The US imposed sanctions on members of a Russian intelligence-linked group for their role in Moscow’s efforts to destabilise democracy and influence elections in Moldova, the Treasury department said. The sanctions target seven individuals, several of whom maintain ties to Russian intelligence services, the department said. They include the group’s leader, Konstantin Prokopyevich Sapozhnikov, who organised the plot to destabilise the government of Moldova, which borders Ukraine, earlier this year.
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv. They discussed preparations for the Nato summit in Lithuania next month and Ukraine’s plan for ending Russia’s invasion. During the meeting, Cleverly said: “Ukraine will win this war and can count on our support.”
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, said three people were killed in the region yesterday as a result of Russian attacks.
Two drones have fallen on the M3 Ukraine highway, in the Russian region of Kaluga, just south of Moscow, the region’s governor has said. There was no detonation and the sites have been cordoned off by investigators, said governor Vladislav Shapsha.
Poland’s agriculture minister has received a draft regulation from the European Commission extending a ban on Ukrainian grain imports until 15 September, he said on Monday.
Belgium will ask Ukraine for clarification on reports that rifles made in Belgium had been used by pro-Ukrainian forces to fight Russian troops inside Russia’s western border, Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Monday.
