(Dan Tri) – Ukrainian officials asked Russia to pay billions of dollars in compensation for the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse, while Moscow accused Kiev of attacking this project.
Houses flooded with water in Kherson after the Kakhovka dam collapse (Photo: Reuters).
Oleg Usenko, economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Newsweek that the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on the Dnieper (Dnipro) river was `absolutely terrible.`
`This was a clear Russian terrorist attack, causing many negative impacts: the environment was affected, people lost their homes, and our energy infrastructure was affected. Total damage
`Russia must be stopped by all possible measures, including heavy sanctions. Ukraine must also be compensated for all damage caused by Russia, down to the last penny,` the Ukrainian official declared
On the morning of June 6, Russia and Ukraine simultaneously announced that the giant Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper River in Kherson was partially destroyed and blamed the other side.
Both Ukraine and NATO accused Russia of being behind the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
President Zelensky described the dam collapse as `a bomb of environmental mass destruction` leaving hundreds of thousands of people without clean water.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture said the dam failure would flood tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land in southern Ukraine, cutting off water supplies to 31 irrigation systems in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions of Ukraine.
`The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant will lead to the fact that fields in the south of Ukraine may turn into deserts next year,` the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture warned.
Mr. Zelensky said Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the dam collapse as a case of `ecocide` for which Russia bears `criminal responsibility.`
`The consequences of the tragedy will be clear in the next week. When the water recedes, it will be clear to everyone what remains and what will happen next,` Mr. Zelensky said.
Location of Kakhovka dam (Source: Guardian).
Ukrainian authorities said that the Kakhovka dam was at its peak and the flood waters could recede in the next 2-4 days, but the consequences would still be huge.
The Kremlin said that in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on June 7, President Vladimir Putin criticized the attack on the Kakhovka dam as a `barbaric act`.
President Putin accused Ukraine of continuing to bet on the dangerous path of escalation of tensions at the behest of the West.