Nuclear plant risks
Experts have speculated that the destruction of the dam, which holds water equivalent to that of the Great Salt Lake in the United States, could have a catastrophic impact on local communities and the environment.
The Soviet-era dam, 30 yards high and 2 miles long, was built in 1956 on the river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
Water from the reservoir helps cool the nearby Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and supplies Russian-occupied Crimea with drinking water.
Ukraine’s state energy company, Energoatom, said the dam breach could have «negative consequences» for the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, but the situation was still under control.
The International Atomic Energy Agency saying was monitoring the situation and there was no immediate nuclear safety risk at the plant.
The overall damage likely to be caused by the breached dam «seems much worse» than last year’s worst scientific model because the reservoir’s water level was so high, a leading water expert said.
“It’s a massive disaster,” said Henrik Ölander-Hjalmarsson, chief executive and founding partner of Dämningsverket AB, a Swedish hydrological modeling company, which last year wrote a “catastrophic dam failure scenario” at the request of UNICEF.
Ukrainian counteroffensive
The dramatic events on Tuesday come a day after Russia said Ukraine’s military had launched a significant attack in an attempt to breach its defenses on the southeastern war front.
Reports of heavy fighting by officials in Moscow and the country’s scorecard Influential military bloggers fueled speculation that it could be the start of the major counter-offensive that kyiv has been preparing for months.
Ukraine denied claims that a major offensive had been thwarted, accusing Russia of lying to sow distrust and suggesting that the long-awaited attack was yet to come.
It was not immediately clear if either party benefits from the dam damage, but it could hamper Ukraine’s military efforts in the south as it floods swaths of land.
The Kremlin argued otherwise, accusing Ukraine of blowing up the dam because its alleged offensive was failing. The “sabotage on Tuesday is also related to the fact that, having started large-scale offensive operations two days ago, the Ukrainian armed forces are not achieving their goals,” Peskov said.
The Kherson region was one of four annexed by the Kremlin last year, but it is only partly controlled by Moscow forces after an earlier Ukrainian offensive recaptured the regional capital of the same name.
There has long been speculation that Ukraine will renew its push to drive Russian troops out of the area and seek to threaten the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula further south.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed.