WASHINGTON, June 12. /TASS/. The United States has no additional information about who was responsible for the collapse of the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (HPP), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference on Monday.
When asked to share intelligence data on who could be behind the strike on the Kakhovka HPP, Blinken said, "On the dam, we don't have any further information on exactly what happened".
"We do know that it's having catastrophic effects on Ukrainians. And that's a terrible thing magnified, of course, by the fact that this is happening in the midst of Russia's broader aggression against Ukraine," he said. "But we don't have any further information on exactly what caused the dam to collapse. Of course, Russia started this war. Russia was actually in control of the dam and we've seen the results affecting so many Ukrainians".
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. Eight people are reported to have died and more than 60 taken to the hospital. Some 7,200 people were evacuated from the flooded settlements.
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.