Toxic flood from dam breach having largest impact on Russian-held territory michael_wasiura in Odesa, Ukraine ✍️
On June 6 at approximately 2:50 a.m. local time torrents of water began flowing through a breach in the Nova Kakhovka dam. Built in 1955, the dam had spanned the Dnieper River, the body of water that now separates the Ukrainian-controlled"right" bank from the Russian-occupied"left" bank in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
A damaged bus sits half-submerged on a flooded street on June 7, 2023 in Kherson, Ukraine. Early Tuesday, the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant, which sit on the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region, were destroyed, forcing downstream communities to evacuate due to risk of flooding. The cause of the dam's collapse is not yet confirmed, with Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of terrorist acts.
While Ukraine's plans for its much-anticipated counteroffensive remain a closely guarded secret, its messaging has drawn attention to the possibility that cross-river incursions might have been intended to play a key role in the looming battle. It is possible that, believing such a river crossing was imminent, Russian forces deliberately destroyed the dam in order to forestall the maneuver.
A Maxar Technologies satellite image taken on June 6, 2023 and published the following day shows water rushing through the site of the former Nova Kakhovka dam."Much of the run-off from insecticides and the heavy metals from industry further up the river sink to the bottom of the reservoir behind a dam," Balynsky told,"meaning that the silt which is now being carried into agricultural fields, residential areas, and national parks downstream is highly toxic.
"Our house was washed away," Artyom, an internally displaced former shopkeeper from a riverside suburb just south of the city of Kherson, toldOn June 7, 2023, Maxar Technologies published satellite imagery that showed flooding in the suburbs of Kherson. The images, taken on June 6, included the neighborhood south of the city where Artyom, a shopkeeper who spoke to Newsweek, has a house and store that still stand, but are now all but submerged by rising flood waters.
If anything, the situation on the Russian-occupied side of the river appears to be worse. While it remains all but impossible to verify information coming from behind Russian lines, refugees who remain in contact with friends and relatives on the ground in the lower-lying, left bank areas of Kherson region recount second-hand stories of what their former neighbors are currently enduring.
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