Significant damage to the dam and hydroelectric power plant on Ukraine’s front line early Tuesday poses strategic challenges for both sides ahead of Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive.
The Kakhovka dam, which supplies water to parts of southern Ukraine, was one of the last remaining crossings over the Dnieper River that separates Ukrainian and Russian forces in the south. Both sides blamed the other for the destruction and ordered residents to evacuate amid massive flooding.
The damage to the Russian-controlled dam would make it difficult for Ukrainian troops to cross into Crimea and other Russian-occupied cities in the south. On the other hand, it could eventually cut water off from Crimea and other parts of Russian-held territory. Flooding in the region could also affect Russian defenses and supply routes.
Russian forces seized the dam in February 2022. They pushed the Ukrainian workers out of the plant, created a military base at the site and cut it off from Ukraine’s electrical grid in October.
This allowed water to flow to the Crimean Peninsula. After Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, Ukraine cut off the water supply flowing from the dam’s reservoir.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, Russia’s appointed governor of Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and a major Black Sea port, said that damage to the reservoir will “not affect the city’s water supply in any way.”
“The city uses its own reservoir, water reserves are at a maximum, and there are also backup sources of water supply,” he wrote.
As water flooded the region, thousands of people were told to leave their homes, and officials warned of an ecological disaster.
Francesca Ebel, Mary Ilyushina, Samantha Schmidt and Pamela Constable contributed to this report.
Sources: RIA Novosti, Kherson government, Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, OpenstreetMap and OpenInfraMap. Brady Africk, who analyzed satellite imagery from Copernicus Open Access Hub, provided fortifications data, which does not include all fortifications in Ukraine; some defenses predate Russia’s full-scale invasion.
