| A critical dam is destroyed on Ukraine’s front line |
| The Kakhovka dam and electric plant in southern Ukraine was destroyed early yesterday morning, flooding a war zone downstream and raising the possibility of environmental and humanitarian disasters. Russia and Ukraine were quick to blame each other for the collapse, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible. Experts said a deliberate internal explosion was most likely the cause. |
| The dam supplies water for drinking and agriculture and for cooling reactors at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said that there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk” at the plant, but that the group was closely monitoring the situation. The destruction could also dislodge land mines, which would create new hazards as they are washed downstream. |
| Residents of Antonivka, a town about 40 miles downstream from the dam, described watching in horror as roiling floodwaters carried trees and debris from washed-out houses. More than 40,000 people could be in the path of the deluge in both Ukrainian- and Russian-controlled territory, a Ukrainian official said. Flooding is expected to intensify as the waters from the reservoir continue to flow. Here’s a map. |
| From our correspondent: “People here are shocked,” said my colleague Marc Santora, who was in southern Ukraine. “They’ve gotten used to all sorts of Russian bombardment, all sorts of horrors, but this is just so much bigger in both magnitude and the repercussions that it is going to have across society.” |
