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Ukrhydroenergo: Kakhovka dam 'beyond repair' after explosion

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Ukrhydroenergo: Kakhovka dam 'beyond repair' after explosion
Flooding in Kherson Oblast after the Kakhovka dam was blown up by Russian forces on June 6, 2023. (Photo: OLEG TUCHYNSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant is "beyond repair" after being blown up by Russian forces, Ukraine's state-owned energy company Ukrhydroenergo reported on June 6.

Ukraine's Southern Operational Command reported early on June 6 that Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.

"As a result of the blast, the machine hall inside the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was completely destroyed. The station is beyond repair," Ukrhydroenergo wrote.

The water level in the Kahovka reservoir is "rapidly decreasing" as of 9:00 am local time, Ukrhydroenergo reported.

Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported that the evacuation of at-risk settlements was already underway. According to the governor, around 16,000 people's homes in Kherson Oblast are located in "critical risk" zones.

The situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is also being monitored, given that the plant relies on water from the reservoir to provide power for its turbine condensers.

"The uncontrolled decrease in the reservoir's water level poses an additional threat to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant," Ukrhydroenergo wrote.

According to Ukrhydroenergo, the plant's cooling pond is filled, and the Ukrainian staff is "monitoring all indicators."

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Kate Tsurkan

Culture Reporter

Kate Tsurkan is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent who writes mostly about culture-related topics. Her newsletter Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan, which focuses specifically on Ukrainian culture, is published weekly by the Kyiv Independent and is partially supported by a generous grant from the Nadia Sophie Seiler Fund. Kate co-translated Oleh Sentsov’s “Diary of a Hunger Striker,” Myroslav Laiuk’s “Bakhmut,” Andriy Lyubka’s “War from the Rear,” and Khrystia Vengryniuk’s “Long Eyes,” among other books. Some of her previous writing and translations have appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harpers, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of Apofenie Magazine and, in addition to Ukrainian and Russian, also knows French.

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