Water levels in the Kakhovka reservoir in the war zone around Kherson in southern Ukraine, continue to fall after the destruction of the dam.
Since the disaster on Tuesday, the level has dropped by almost 5 meters to 11.7 meters as of Friday morning, the state-owned hydroelectric power plant operator Ukrhydroenergo said, adding that the water sank by about one meter within 24 hours.
The company also pointed out that the dam wall, which had not yet completely collapsed, was still crumbling.
The aim is now to dam the water of the Dnipro river in the reservoirs above the Kakhovka station, in order to have reserves for the summer.
In the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kherson region, floodwaters dropped by 20 centimeters, compared to the previous day, according to the area’s Ukrainian military governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, who also said the water level on Friday was 5.38 meters.
Thirty-two villages and more than 3,600 houses were under water in the region, and more than 2,000 people and hundreds of animals had been brought to safety.
Prokudin therefore, called on people to leave their flooded houses.
The Ukranian Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, compared the catastrophic consequences of the dam’s destruction to the “use of a tactical nuclear weapon.”
On Ukrainian radio, he held Russian President Vladimir Putin personally responsible.
“Such decisions are made only in the Kremlin and only by Putin,” Danilov said, threatening that the consequences for Russia’s actions would also be catastrophic, as it would have to pay for the damage.
Ukraine accuses Russian troops of mining the hydroelectric plant and then blowing it up.
Ukraine’s SBU security service released an audio recording of a conversation on Friday, in which a Russian soldier is said to admit to the crime.
A man can be heard saying that a Russian sabotage group was responsible for the attack, however the authenticity of the recording could not be independently verified.
Russia in its defence, claimed that the dam was destroyed by Ukrainian shelling.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and shortly afterwards occupied large parts of the Kherson region.
