MELITOPOL, June 21. /TASS/. The collapse of the Kakhovka dam has not affected the agricultural sector of the Zaporozhye Region, because it has enough water to irrigate its crops for about a month and a half, said Vladimir Rogov, leader of the We Are Together With Russia movement.
"[The Kakhovka dam collapse] has no effect on our agriculture. Our irrigation canals have enough water for 1.5 months. We had a downpour one of these days, and it filled canals with even more water," Rogov told a TASS correspondent on Wednesday.
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.