Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky accused “Russian terrorists” of carrying out an alleged attack on the dam in southern Ukraine.
“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,” Zelensky tweeted.
“Not a single meter should be left to them, because they use every meter for terror,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in turn accused Ukraine of destroying the dam to prevent Russian attacks in the Kherson region.
The Nova Kakhovka dam, in Ukraine’s Kherson region, supplies water to both Ukrainian-held areas and Russian-occupied regions. It has a reservoir about the size of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
It also provides water to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear plant in Europe.
Russia has occupied the area around the Nova Kakhovka dam for more than a year.
It’s unclear when and how the dam was attacked, though both Ukraine and Russia are accusing each other of planting explosives. The dam also may have collapsed on its own from neglect during a time of war.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. “cannot say conclusively” how the dam collapsed.
The partial dam breach unleashed major flooding on Tuesday, threatening dozens of settlements in the surrounding area.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the dam collapse will endanger thousands of civilians.
“This is an outrageous act, which demonstrates once again the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine,” he tweeted.
Emergency evacuations are already being carried out as officials fear a major environmental and humanitarian disaster.
The United States Agency for International Development said emergency responders were assisting with water removal and that evacuations were underway via buses, trains and private vehicles.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said there was no immediate risk to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The dam collapse comes as Ukraine appears to have launched its long-anticipated counteroffensive in the eastern Donetsk region.
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