MELITOPOL, June 20. /TASS/. The drinking water in the Zaporozhye Region complies with sanitary standards; its quality has not been compromised following the collapse of the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (HPP), Natalia Khattatova, acting head of the Russian sanitary watchdog’s Zaporozhye Region department, told TASS on Tuesday.

"Drinking water samples are taken every day for deviations from hygienic standards, including in terms of microbiological parameters. I would like to say that the drinking water complies with standards and is safe in epidemiological terms," she said.

According to Khattatova, the watchdog has been monitoring the environmental situation since last August. "The situation with the Kakhovka Reservoir has not affected the quality of the water supply for the population in the Zaporozhye Region," she stressed.

On the morning of June 6, the Ukrainian military launched a missile attack on the Kakhovka HPP, which resulted in the destruction of gate sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. Water levels in Novaya Kakhovka rose to 12 meters, but now the water is subsiding. There are 35 communities in the flood zone. People are being evacuated from flooded areas. According to the latest data, thirty-eight people have died and 115 have been hospitalized. The destruction of the hydropower plant has caused serious environmental damage with farmlands along the Dnieper River being washed away. Additionally, there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal may run low and become too shallow.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the strike on the Kakhovka dam as an act of deliberate sabotage by Ukrainian forces, adding that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for its consequences.