The attack on Kakhovka dam a "barbaric act": Vladimir Putin

Kherson, Jun 08: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (June 7) called the attack on the Russian-occupied Kakhovka dam a "barbaric act", in his first public reaction to the situation. Moscow has already blamed Ukraine for the "catastrophic" attack. The hydroelectric dam was ripped open early Tuesday after a reported blast and in the aftermath, Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame for the attack.

 

 

 

The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call that the breach was "a barbaric act which has led to a large-scale environmental and humanitarian catastrophe". During the call, the Russian president also congratulated his Turkish counterpart on officially assuming office, Kremlin said, further adding that Putin and Erdogan have agreed to maintain regular communication. The statement mentioned: "It has been agreed to maintain regular personal dialogue."

 

 

 

Erdogan's office reported that on Wednesday, the Turkish president also spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and proposed to create an international commission to probe the destruction of a major dam in southern Ukraine. "President Erdogan said that a commission could be established with the participation of experts from the warring parties, the United Nations, and the international community, including Turkey, for a detailed investigation into the explosion at Kakhovka dam," his office said after the call with Zelensky. The alleged attack triggered geopolitical tensions as the Kakhovka dam sits on the Dnipro River, which feeds a reservoir providing cooling water for the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, some 150 kilometers upstream. Thousands of civilians were forced to flee the flooded areas while raising fears of an ecological disaster after the destruction of the dam caused torrents of water to pour into the Dnipro. Zelensky said the dam's collapse had left hundreds of thousands of people without normal access to drinking water. Ukraine's agriculture ministry said that the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station would lead the fields in the south of Ukraine to "turn into deserts next year". In a statement issued late on Tuesday, the ministry said the disaster would cut off the water supply to 31 irrigation systems in the Ukrainian regions of Dnipro, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

 

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It added that in 2021 these systems provided irrigation on 584,000 hectares from which farmers harvested about four million tonnes of grains and oilseeds. It further mentioned that the dam's destruction has left 94 percent of irrigation systems in Kherson, 74 percent of those in Zaporizhzhia, and 30 percent of those in Dnipro regions without water.