Moscow: 14,000 homes flooded, 4,300 evacuated
More than 14,000 homes are flooded after the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, Russian emergency services said this morning, and some 4,300 people have been evacuated. The Tax reports it.
Kiev – 600 square km of Kherson under water
“This morning the average flood level is 5.61 meters: 600 square kilometers of the Kherson region are under water, 32% of which are on the right bank and 68% on the left bank.” This was announced on Telegram by the head of the Ukrainian regional military administration of Kherson Oleksandr Prokudin.
IAEA: «After dam collapse crucial integrity of Zaporizhzia»
“It is essential to maintain the integrity of the plant’s cooling basin and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant spillway. It is imperative that the plant has sufficient water to provide essential cooling to the site in the coming months,” said International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi after the explosion of the Kakhovka dam which supplies of water the plant, as stated on the IAEA website.
Zelensky: Russians shoot rescue workers in flooded areas
Russian forces have fired on Ukrainian rescuers trying to reach flooded areas in the Kherson region under Russian control. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Bild. Rescuers are trying to evacuate thousands of people in the flooded area after the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric plant. «People and animals are dead – said Zelensky – From the roofs of the flooded houses, people see drowned people floating. It is very difficult to evacuate people in the occupied part of the Kherson region.” “When our forces try to get the residents out, they are shot by the occupants from a distance – he added – As soon as our rescuers try to save them, they are shot. We will not be able to see the full consequences of what is happening until the water level has dropped.”
Kiev: 5 years for new dam construction
The construction of a new dam and hydroelectric plant on the site of the destroyed Kakhovka dams will take at least five years and more than a billion dollars, said the head of the Ukrainian state energy company Ukrhydroenergo, Ihor Syrota. “This is a complex hydroelectric plant that will take time to rebuild,” Syrota said, explaining that Ukraine still does not know the full extent of the damage caused by the dam’s destruction.
Draghi: «The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine was not an act of unpredictable madness»
«The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine was not an act of unforeseeable madness» but «a premeditated step» by Vladimir Putin and «an intentional blow for the EU. The existential values ​​of the European Union are peace, freedom and respect for democratic sovereignty”, and it is “for this reason that there is no alternative for the United States, Europe and their allies other than ensuring that Ukraine win this war»: former premier Mario Draghi said this, speaking at MIT in Boston. For Draghi, accepting a Russian victory “would deal a fatal blow to the EU”.
“Accepting a Russian victory or a confused draw would fatally weaken other neighboring states and send a message to autocrats that the EU is ready to compromise on what it stands for, on what it is. It would also signal to our Eastern partners that our commitment to their freedom and independence – a pillar of our foreign policy – is not all that unshakeable,” said the former prime minister. «For Europe, winning this war means having a stable peace, and today this prospect appears difficult. The invasion of Russia is part of President Putin’s delusional long-term strategy: to reclaim the former influence of the Soviet Union and the existence of his government is now intimately tied to his success. It would take internal political change in Moscow for Russia to abandon her goals, but there is no sign that such a change will occur,” Draghi added.