TOKYO, June 21. /TASS/. Roughly one million people may face the problem of water shortages following the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Kubrakov told Japan’s NHK television in an interview, aired on Wednesday.
"Now we are working on construction of new water pipelines from other water reserves in order to provide access for our people to water," said Kubrakov, who doubles as Ukraine’s infrastructure minister.
However, the Kiev government has so far been unable to get a full picture of the challenges that the disaster creates for the region's agricultural sector, the official added.
Speaking about the upcoming conference on Ukraine, to be held in London on June 21-22, Kubrakov said that the government expected Japanese companies to help transforming his country’s energy and power generation sector.
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.