The Kakhovka dam, which Kiev and Moscow accuse each other of attacking on Tuesday, June 6, is a key structure in southern Ukraine that supplies water to annexed Crimea and is on the route of Ukrainian troops to a reconquest of occupied territories.
Located 150 km from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the Kakhovka dam, a partly concrete and earth structure, is 3,273 m long. It is one of the largest infrastructures of this type in Ukraine. According to the website of the Ukrainian operating company, Ukrgidroenergo, the power of the hydroelectric plant is 334.8 megawatts (MW).
Built in the 1950s, during the Soviet period, the Kakhovka dam also allows water to be sent into the North Crimean Canal, which starts in southern Ukraine and crosses the entire Crimean peninsula, occupied and annexed by Moscow since 2014.
The destruction of this dam should thus cause significant difficulties for the water supply of Crimea, which kyiv claims to want to reconquer. Upstream of the structure is the Kakhovka Reservoir, an artificial reservoir formed on the course of the Dnieper, 240 km long and up to 23 km wide. Both the dam and the nuclear power plant were captured by Russian troops in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022.
The authorities installed by Moscow in the region of Kherson (South) for their part accused kyiv of “multiple strikes” on the dam, causing, according to them, the partial destruction of the work. According to Kiev, “about 16,000 people are in a critical zone”, threatened by flooding, while Moscow has judged that 14 localities where “more than 22,000 people reside” are in such a situation, but “the situation is completely under control “. However, the town of Nova Kakhovka, where the dam is located, is flooded, local authorities installed by Moscow said.
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