Zelenskyy vows work will be done to bring Russia to ‘justice’ for Kakhovka dam blast

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that work will be done to bring Russia to “justice” for the Kakhovka dam blast.

“During the past year, our state and people have been able to eliminate some of the consequences of the Russian attack. I am grateful to everyone who helped save lives, provide housing, and restore the drinking water supply. This is important. No less important work will be done to bring Russia to justice for this,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame for carrying out the June 6, 2023, strikes which led to the destruction of the walls of the Kakhovka dam in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, resulting in flooding of nearby areas.

Moscow accused Ukraine of attempting to cut Crimea off from the freshwater it receives from the Kakhovka Reservoir, which was formed by the dam, while Kyiv claimed that Russia tried to slow an expected counteroffensive last summer.

“It was a deliberate and premeditated crime, one of their most serious crimes against the environment and people in our entire region,” said Zelenskyy.

Expressing that at least tens of thousands of people were affected by the dam’s destruction, Zelenskyy said hundreds of thousands were also left without access to clean drinking water.

“Large areas of Ukraine were flooded, and the Kakhovka Reservoir, which supported the stability of Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia NPP, was destroyed,” he said.

He added that the consequence of the blast was also felt in neighboring countries in the Black Sea region.

The vast dam, 30 meters (98 feet) tall and 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnieper River as part of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. It held a reservoir with a capacity of 18 cubic kilometers (4.3 cubic miles).