Hydroelectric Power Plant explosion is terrible, city is flooding – Nova Kakhovka Mayor

Volodymyr Kovalenko, the mayor of Nova Kakhovka, has said that the city is being flooded as a result of the occupiers' blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) dam.

Source: Kovalenko in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda

Quote from Kovalenko: "The explosion is terrible because it affected not only the roadway, the dam, and unfortunately, the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant itself, that is, the turbine hall, was blown up. The destruction is man-made; the volume of water is falling rapidly at the moment."

Details: The city’s mayor has information as of 06:30. He said that at that time, the Fairy Tale Grove zoo (Kazkova Dibrova) and the summer theatre were flooded, that the water had come up to a monument to Shevchenko, and that cafes and a playground in the city were flooded.

A boat station and a yacht club were also flooded, and water had come up to Dniprovskyi Avenue.

Kovalenko said that it is currently difficult to get information from the city because there are interruptions in internet connections. He believes that it was the Russians who started jamming the signal to keep people in an information vacuum.

Local residents started writing about the dam blowing up at 05:00. At the same time, there is no information on whether there were one or several explosions.  

The mayor added that the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant had not been generating electricity in recent months.

Background:

• On the morning of 6 June, Ukraine’s Operational Command Pivden (South) reported that the Russian occupation forces had blown up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), with Kherson Oblast Military Administration confirming this information. Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, noted that they had started the evacuation of the local population from dangerous areas.
• According to Prokudin, the water will reach a critical level in five hours.
• Police noted that the potential flood zone on the right bank of the Dnipro River includes the villages Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Lvove, Tiahynka, Poniativka, Ivanivka, Tokarivka, Prydniprovske, Sadove and part of the city of Kherson – Korabel Island.
• The electricity supply was cut off in the Korabel microdistrict in Kherson due to flooding caused by the blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP)  by the Russian invaders.
• Zelenskyy has called an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defence Council due to the blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam.

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