UNITED NATIONS, June 6. /TASS/. The breakdown of the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant’s dam poses an additional threat to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.

"We have all seen the tragic images coming out today of the monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe in the Kherson region of Ukraine. The United Nations has no access to independent information on the circumstances that led to the destruction in the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam," he said. "We are seeing the effects in the city of Kherson, the town of Nova Kakhovka and 80 other towns and villages along the Dnipro river."

"Massive flooding. Large-scale evacuations. Environmental devastation. Destruction of newly planted crops," he said. "And added threats to the highly threatened Zaporizhzia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest nuclear facility."

Ukrainian forces shelled the Kakhovka HPP in the early morning hours on Tuesday, presumably using missiles fired from an Olkha multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). The gate valves of the plant’s dam collapsed as a result of the shelling, causing water to pour out uncontrollably.