The alarm continues in Ukraine after the bombings that blew up the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro river. A 30-metre giant and an 18 million cubic meter water basin that cools the fuel in the reactor cores of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and guarantees the water supply to Crimea.
Already falling into Russian hands in the first days of the invasion, which began on 24 February 2022, the dam had already been at the center, in recent months, of recriminations by Kiev , which accused Moscow of having undermined the structure and wanting to blow it up for flood the battlefield with its millions of mere cubic meters of water, halting the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
A hypothesis which, according to international opinion, seems to have found dramatic confirmation in the last few hours.
The floods caused by the dam explosion have now also damaged nearby bridges in the southern region of Mykolaiv , Snihurivka city military administration chief Ivan Kukhta said, quoted by CNN. Kukhta said a bridge in the village of Yelyzavetivka was destroyed and another in the village of Halahanivka was "completely submerged in water". And he added that the authorities are evacuating residents from homes in Snihurivka.
Due to the explosion of the Kakhovka dam, "an oil slick weighing at least 150 tons has formed - Zelensky's words - which is carried by the current towards the Black Sea. We cannot yet predict how much of the chemicals, fertilizers and petroleum products stored in flooded areas will end up in rivers and the sea. The evacuation of people from the flooded area is underway: almost eighty settlements are at risk.
And while the exchange of accusations on responsibility continues, with Moscow denying and overturning the Ukrainian accusations speaking of a "terrorist act by Kiev to stop our troops", an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council has been convened.
Words of condemnation for the act also from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, "criminal to damage the dam" , while Cardinal Zuppi, sent by the Pope to Kiev and received by Zelensky, speaks of a "useful mission on the path to peace".
(Unioneonline/vl)