Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenskyhas described the destruction of a large dam in the rio dnieper as it passed through the province of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, of “massive environmental destruction bomb”, and confirmed that kyiv has already denounced Russia for it before international justice.
“The deliberate destruction of the dam and other infrastructure of the (New Kakhovka) hydroelectric power station at the hands of the Russian occupiers is an environmental bomb of mass destructionZelensky said in his address to the nation last night.
In his daily address to his citizens, the Ukrainian head of state also reported that “the (Ukrainian) prosecutor general has already asked the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court that involves international justice on the investigation of the explosion at the dam”.
Regarding the consequences of the disaster, which has caused the flooding of dozens of towns and is forcing the evacuation of thousands of people from the area, Zelensky highlighted the drinking water supply problems that the overflow could cause for various regions of the south and southeast. from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president assured that the authorities are “doing everything possible” to supply drinking water to provinces such as Krivói Rog, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia.
Meanwhile, Zelensky also accused Russia of abandoning the “tens of thousands” of people living in the occupied zone to their fate. by Moscow that has been affected by the overflow of a dam in the Kherson province of southern Ukraine.
“At least 100,000 people lived in those areas before the Russian invasion. At least tens of thousands of people are still there,” Zelensky said on Twitter, adding that “in the Russian-occupied part the occupiers don’t even try to help people.”
The Ukrainian president has also written that “this demonstrates once again the cynicism with which Russia treats the people of the lands it captures.”
The Ukrainian president has insisted that “The destruction of one of the largest dams in Ukraine has been entirely deliberate.”
“Russian terrorists have once again shown that they are a threat to all life,” Zelensky said in his message, which was accompanied by photos of civilians carrying belongings and animals through the waterlogged streets of their towns and cities.
Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberately blowing up the dam to stop the possibility of a Ukrainian military advance. According to President Zelensky, the explosion that would have destroyed the dam and the New Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station could only have occurred from inside the infrastructure.
The Kherson region of Ukraine in which New Kakhovka is located is bisected by the Dnieper River, where the damaged dam was located. The western bank is under the control of the Kiev government, while the eastern bank, where the damaged plant was located, is occupied by Russia.
Ukraine said that Russia had been preparing the ground for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam for months, in the Dnieper River, and now seeking to “blame the victim for his own crimes.”
“This is a terrorist act against a critical Ukrainian infrastructure which seeks to cause the greatest number of civilian casualties and the greatest possible destruction,” stressed the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, during an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
Kyslytsya recalled that Russian troops have been controlling the installation for more than a year and stressed that it is “physically impossible” to blow up the dam from the outside.
“It was mined by the Russian occupiers and they blew it up”insisted the diplomat, who considered that Russia has opted for a “scorched earth” tactic “being aware that the captured territory does not belong to them and that they will not be able to maintain it.”
The Ukrainian ambassador noted that the possible destruction of the dam has long been discussed by Russian diplomats and media, “indicating that it was planned in advance” and that Russia, he said, wanted to blame it on Ukraine.
Kyslytsya considered a letter sent last October by Moscow to the UN warning of alleged Ukrainian plans to attack the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant as part of that effort.
That letter was recalled today before the Security Council by the Russian ambassador, Vasili Nebenzia, who blamed Kiev for the destruction of the dam.
Regarding the consequences of the incident, the Ukrainian representative said that a rise of more than three meters in the water level of the Dnieper had already been seen today near the city of Kherson and calculated that the largest area flooded would be seen within a period of between three and five days.
As he assured, the left bank of the river – the area controlled by Ukrainian forces – will suffer “eight times more than the right”, with some towns that could be completely covered by the waters.
In addition, he warned of the problems that will be seen in the supply of drinking water and that will also affect Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com