Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, has informed via Twitter of the environmental consequences of a catastrophe like the one that is causing the rupture of the Kakhovka dam, one of the largest in Ukraine.

“Tens of thousands of tons of fish and a unique biosphere will die. The nests of millions of birds in the wetlands along the Left Bank of the Dnieper river have been flooded”, said the expert, who also assured that “the channel of the north of Crimea will now dry up and will remain dry for a long time and the people of the south and Crimea will be left without drinking water” .

The dam, 30 meters (yards) high and 3.2 km (2 miles) long, holds water equivalent to that of the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah. It was built in 1956 on the Dnipro River as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station and its importance is vital for the region: supplies water to the Crimean peninsulaannexed by Russia in 2014, and the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, also under Russian control.

In addition, it is estimated that in just hours it could flood at least 80 settlements located on the banks of the Dnipro River. As early as October 2022, the pro-Russian authorities in the Kherson region of Ukraine began to release water from the Nova Kakhovka dam to lower the water level and minimize a possible disaster if the dam was attacked.

Ukraine then accused Russia before the UN Security Council of having placed mines in the surroundings of the Kajovka hydroelectric power station and dam. “Russian terrorists have undermined the dam and the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant attachments, the destruction of which would subject more than 80 settlements and hundreds of thousands of people to rapid flooding,” Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN Sergii Kislitsia said. .

Zelensky went even further, warning that a Russian attack on the Kakhovka dam would be equated with the use of weapons of mass destruction, since it could take more than 80 locations aheadincluding Kherson. “In the event of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, the North Crimean Channel will simply disappear. And if Russia is preparing such a terrorist attack, if it is seriously considering such a scenario, it means that terrorists are well aware that they can not only control Kherson, but also the entire south of our country, including Crimea,” the Ukrainian president said.