Continuing the updates on the Kakhovka dam collapse in Kherson, southern Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky personally visits the site to try and resolve the issue, while Moscow and Kyiv take each other to the Court of Justice over the matter.
 |
| President Zelensky (second from left) inspects the southern Kherson region to find solutions to the Kakhovka dam collapse. (Source: DPA) |
On June 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had visited the flooded southern region of Kherson to discuss the situation following the collapse of the Kakhovka dam.
Posting on Telegram , Zelensky wrote: "We discussed many important issues such as the actual situation in the disaster area, the evacuation of people from flood-prone areas, the lifting of the state of emergency following the dam collapse, the organization of flood relief operations, the prospects for restoring the region's ecosystem, and the military situation in the disaster area."
On the same day, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin stated that approximately 600 square kilometers of Kherson province were submerged, with 68% of the area on the left bank of the Dnipro River, controlled by Russia, and the remaining 32% on the western bank. As of the morning of June 8th, the average water level had reached 5.61 meters.
The evacuation of people from the flooded areas continues, despite fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Earlier, during a visit to the Dnipro River on June 7, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov warned of the consequences of landmine explosions, disease outbreaks, and the spread of toxic chemicals following the collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam.
According to him, the dam collapse disaster affected more than 80 settlements. Ukrainian authorities have now evacuated people from at least 24 flooded settlements.
In Kherson, residents have set up a temporary boat dock for police, rescue workers, and volunteers to use for transportation.
Ukraine has now allocated 120 million Hryvnia ($3.25 million) to secure water supplies in Mykolaiv, and 1.5 billion Hryvnia has been set aside for the reconstruction of the water supply system devastated by the floods.
The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnipro River, in the Russian-controlled Kherson province, broke on June 6, causing water from the reservoir to flood downstream, submerging many residential areas, villages, and some urban areas along the river.
Both Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the dam collapse and called for an international investigation.
On the same day, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague (Netherlands), rejecting Ukraine's accusations that Russia was responsible for the dam collapse, Moscow accused Kyiv of "not only carrying out large-scale shelling of the dam on the night of June 6, but also deliberately raising the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir to a dangerous level beforehand."
Source
Comment (0)