Zelenskyy on blowing up of Kakhovka dam: We need world's maximum reaction to Russian terror
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on international organisations and every state to respond to the act of ecocide committed by the Russians by blowing up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP).
Source: Zelenskyy's address regarding the Russian ecocide as a result of blowing up of the hydroelectric power plant
Quote: "I address everyone in the world for whom life is a value. Today the Russian occupiers have committed the biggest crime of ecocide on the Ukrainian land – not only during this war, but in decades.
In fact, the destroyed Kakhovka Reservoir is one of the largest in Ukraine. It holds 18 billion cubic metres of water.
All the structures of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant and its dam were located in the occupied territory. Under the full control of the Russian occupiers.
Last fall, we had information that the occupiers had mined the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. They did it intentionally. First, to blackmail the world. Second, to blow up the dam and use the flood as a weapon. This is exactly what happened."
Details: Zelenskyy said that tens of thousands of people remain in the flood zone, where more than a hundred thousand people lived before the war.
The President emphasised that the destruction of the dam and reservoir is a man-made attack on the natural environment, after which nature will have to recover for decades.
According to Zelenskyy, it is currently impossible to predict how many chemicals, fertilisers and oil products stored in the flooded areas will enter the rivers and the sea.
Quote: "As of today, several things are clear. First, such a crime of ecocide could not have happened simply by shelling the dam. To destroy it, Russian forces had to act deliberately – mine, blow up, destroy.
Secondly, no country in the world should be left alone against such terror, and I am grateful to everyone who is helping Ukraine!
Thirdly, we need an immediate and maximum global response to Russian terror. From the UN Security Council to every international institution. Every state, every leader. Russian terrorists must leave our entire territory, every metre of which they are trying to use for evil and disasters. The faster the liberation happens, the faster the security will come.
The deliberate destruction of the hydroelectric dam by terrorists looks the same from all corners of the world. For Africa, Europe, the United States, China, Australia, and India, man-made disasters are evil.
We must stop the Russian evil. All other terrorists in the world must see that terror is punished by the world."
Read also: Flooded South: the consequences of blowing up the Kakhovka dam (in brief)
Background:
- On the morning of 6 June, Ukraine’s Operational Command Pivden (South) reported that Russian occupation forces had blown up the Kakhovka HPP. The dam and the power plant's turbine hall were completely destroyed. The draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir threatens the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
- Destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant caused an ecological catastrophe. Water from the reservoir has begun to flood towns and villages, and evacuations of local residents from dangerous areas have begun. The blowing up of the dam at the Kakhovka HPP has caused problems with the water supply in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Marhanets and Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasised that the recent disaster at the Kakhovka HPP created by the Russians will not stop Ukraine from liberating its own territory, and neither has it increased the chances of the occupiers to stay on this land.
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