An " ecocide ", the " largest technological disaster in Europe in recent decades that puts thousands of civilians at risk", a " war crime ": these and other sentences are arriving in these hours from Kiev and the international community after the rain of bombs that partially destroyed the great Kakhovka dam, near Kherson .
Now the risk is of major floods , with thousands of people in difficulty and with the populations of the Kherson region and Crimea who will soon be without drinking water . And there is also the nuclear emergency in Zaporizhzhia, as the plant risks losing its cooling source.
According to the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak the Novaya Kakhovpka dam would have been damaged by an explosion caused in the engine room by the 205th Motorized Brigade of the Russian army with the aim of creating floods that would block the announced counter-offensive in Kiev .
"An outrageous act that once again demonstrates the brutality of Russia's war in Ukraine," said NATO Secretary General Jan Stoltenberg . “The destruction of civilian infrastructure clearly qualifies as a war crime, and we will make sure that Russia and its allies pay the consequences,” said EU Council President Charles Michel . “I will raise the issue in June at the EU Council and propose more assistance to the flooded areas. My thoughts go out to all the families in Ukraine affected by this catastrophe". The attack on the Ukrainian dam gives a "new dimension" to Russia's war, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “This is something that fits into many of the crimes we have seen committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine and is part of a war that has attacked civilian targets: cities, villages, hospitals, schools.”
However , pro - Russian sources continue to deny Moscow 's hand behind the bombing .
According to the pro-Russian governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, with its new "crime", i.e. a rocket attack on the Novaya Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, "the Kiev regime" intends "to divert attention from its terrible failures in the so-called counter-offensive, but it won't achieve anything". According to Saldo, "a large amount of water, but not critical" is flowing along the Dnepr River and "a large evacuation of the population will not be necessary". "Most of the residents remain in place, even if the means of transport have been sent" for those who want to leave, added Saldo.
(Unioneonline/vl)
Read also:
