GENICHESK, June 9. /TASS/. The Kakhovka main canal may become shallow following the collapse of the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (HPP), acting governor of the Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo said on Friday.
"There is a risk of the Kakhovka main canal running low and as a consequence, a threat of limiting the supply of drinking water to the Ivanovsky municipal district (4,000 people). Bearing this in mind, I have issued an executive order to provide water to the districts using water wells and deliver drinking water by transport," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to Saldo, water levels at the Kakhovka reservoir continue to drop. Thus, in his words, it has subsided by five meters near the settlement of Gornostayevka.
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. According to emergency services, there are 35 communities in the flood zone, and residents of nearby villages are being evacuated. Eight people are reported to have died and more than 60 taken to the hospital.
The destruction of the hydro power 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.