“The Environmental Catastrophe Caused by the Nova Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam Explosion in Ukraine” – A Comprehensive Coverage

2023-06-06 19:46:24

The deluge caused by the explosion of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam will not only cause unprecedented destruction, it risks lasting changes to the ecosystems and climate of southern Ukraine, which might become a natural and human desert.

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By Stephane Siohan

Published on 06/6/2023 at 21:46
Reading time: 2 mins

Correspondent in Ukraine

Uhe sword of Damocles has hung over the heads of Ukrainians in the south, downstream of the Dnieper, since it was revealed in the fall of 2022 that the Russian armed forces had mined the hydroelectric dam of Nova Kakhovka, in the region of Kherson. During the night of Monday to Tuesday, the disaster scenario was triggered when a violent explosion caused the destruction of 11 of the 28 spans of the dam on the river, washed away over a length of 177 meters. Subsequently, a wave 4 to 5 meters high began to flow at a speed of 25 km/h downstream of the Nova Kakhovka dam. Through a “war crime” as Volodymyr Zelensky described it, the Russian forces thwart the Ukrainian army’s plan to cross the river to liberate the occupied territories, but the Russians are responsible for an environmental catastrophe as we has seen little in Europe for decades, which might ravage the ecosystems of southern Ukraine and the Black Sea basin.

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