MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military shelled the Kakhovka hydropower plant (HPP) overnight to June 6, destroying the hydraulic valves and triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. Water levels have already exceeded 10 meters in Novaya Kakhovka.

Fourteen settlements are currently in the flood area and about 80 communities can be flooded.

Residents of about 300 houses on the bank of the Dnieper River are already being evacuated. A considerable part of infrastructural facilities in Novaya Kakhovka has already been flooded.

TASS has put together highlights of the situation at the Kakhovka HPP.

What happened

- At about 2:00 a.m. on June 6, the Kakhovka HPP came under numerous strikes by the Ukrainian army, which destroyed the hydraulic valves and triggered an uncontrolled discharge of water from the reservoir downstream of the river. Fourteen out of 28 HPP spans have collapsed and their collapse continues.

- The strike against the Kakhovka HPP was presumably delivered from a Ukrainian Olkha multiple launch rocket system. The Ukrainian military keeps shelling Novaya Kakhovka.

- The station’s surface structures have been destroyed. Water is rushing down the Dnieper River.

- The water levels in Novaya Kakhovka have already exceeded ten meters and measure from two meters to four meters downstream of the Kakhovka HPP.

- The water in the Dnieper will come down to normal levels within 72 hours, Novaya Kakhovka Administration Head Vladimir Leontyev said.

Flooding of populated areas

- Fourteen settlements with a population of 22,000 people have come within the flooding area, including Dnepryane, Korsunka and Zabarino. Summer cottage settlements, and also Tsyurupinsk and Golaya Pristan are being flooded. There is no electricity and water supply there and local residents have left the area on their own.

- A considerable part of infrastructural facilities in Novaya Kakhovka, and also some sewage stations and houses have already been flooded. The town’s riverside area has been cut off power supply for safety reasons.

- The Emergencies Ministry staff and the local authorities are controlling the river’s water levels.

- The Kherson regional authorities have urged residents of riverside settlements to be ready for evacuation, if the situation deteriorates. All necessary measures for this scenario are underway.

- Residents of about 300 houses located on the bank of the Dnieper River are already being evacuated. Evacuation has also begun in some communities of the Novaya Kakhovka urban district.

- Three rescue teams of the Russian Emergencies Ministry have been sent to Novaya Kakhovka, Golaya Pristan and Alyoshki.

Consequences

- The most disastrous scenario has not occurred, Leontyev said. However, the scope of the Kakhovka HPP destruction and the recovery work will be similar to building the hydropower plant anew, he said.

- Crimean reservoirs have sufficient water volumes for the peninsula’s needs and the disaster at the Kakhovka HPP will have no effect on the region’s supply, emergency services told TASS. There is no threat of flooding in Crimea and the region has sufficient water reserves, Crimean Head Sergey Aksyonov assured. However, a risk of shallowing of the North Crimean Canal exists, he said.

- The situation will also not affect water supply in Sevastopol that uses its own reservoir, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said.

- The Kakhovka HPP presumably cannot be repaired, the Novaya Kakhovka mayor said. It is yet impossible to assess whether the hydropower plant will keep disintegrating, he added.

- The disaster will not affect irrigation in the Kherson Region because the irrigation season has been disrupted due to Kiev’s shelling, Pavel Filipchuk, administration head of the Kakhovka municipal district, told TASS.

- The destruction of the HPP caused serious damage to the environment, Leontyev said.

Situation at Zaporozhye NPP

- IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) experts are keeping a close eye on the situation at the Kakhovka HPP. They say that the situation poses no direct nuclear safety risks for the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP).

"Adviser to the chief executive of Russia’s Rosenergoatom nuclear power plant operator Renat Karchaa also said that the risks for the Zaporozhye nuke plant were minimal and there were no grounds for concern. As senator from the Zaporozhye Region Dmitry Vorona specified, such disasters were envisaged in the design and construction of the Zaporozhye NPP.

- Zaporozhye NPP Director Yury Chernichuk confirmed the absence of threats for the nuke plant.

Authorities’ reaction

- All the heads of the municipal district are at their working places.

- As Leontyev said, the strikes against the Kakhovka HPP are "the most serious terror act" whose consequences will yet have to be studied.

- Acting Governor of the Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo has come at the head of the HPP crisis center.

Ukraine’s reaction

- Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has announced that he will hold an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on the situation at the Kakhovka HPP. Zelensky has also claimed that the hydropower plant was allegedly destroyed by "Russian terrorists."

- The Ukrainian hydropower generator Ukrhydroenergo claims that the HPP was destroyed after it was blown up from inside.