The destruction of the Kakhovka HPP is an undeniable war crime

On June 6, the Russian occupiers blew up one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in Europe, Kakhovka HPP, in the Kherson region. Since the autumn of 2022, Ukrainian intelligence and the Defense Forces have been reporting on the plans of the Russian Federation to carry out this terrorist attack.

As of the morning of June 6, there are 80 settlements in the zone of potential flooding. The hydroelectric power plant is completely destroyed and cannot be restored. A mass evacuation has been announced.

GUR MO informs that the detonation of the hydroelectric power station may affect the operation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which uses water from the Dnipro for cooling.

International humanitarian law, which defines the rules of warfare, unequivocally recognizes the detonation of dams and hydroelectric power plants as war crimes. Today, we are witnessing another war crime by the Russian occupiers posing a threat to hundreds of thousands of people, including those outside Ukraine.

It is another grave environmental disaster that testifies to the scorched earth tactics used by the Russian invaders in Ukraine.

We will remind you that one of the black pages of Ukrainian history was the undermining of the Dnipro HPP in 1941 by Soviet troops as part of the “scorched earth” tactic. The residents were not informed in any way about the possible consequences and the operation itself, which led to numerous victims among the civilian population. Soviet propaganda created a myth that the Dnipro wave destroyed enemy positions, which was later resoundingly refuted by historians.