According to Ukrainian authorities, a Russian strike damaged the Kurakhové reservoir dam. An attack which “potentially threatens” the inhabitants of neighboring localities with flooding.
A Russian strike “damaged” a dam on a reservoir in eastern Ukraine, causing a significant rise in water levels on a river and creating “a threat” of flooding for neighboring communities, it said on Monday November 11 the local governor.
“The Russians damaged the Kurakhové reservoir dam,” Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram. “This attack potentially threatens residents of localities located on the Vovcha River in the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions,” he added.
A major precedent in June 2023
The water level of this river near the village of Velyka Novossilka “rose by 1.2 meters” but “no flooding has been reported so far”, the governor said.
This reservoir is located near the town of Kurakhové, in the immediate vicinity of the front, in an area where Russian troops have approached from the east in recent weeks.
In June 2023, a massive Soviet-era dam in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine was partially destroyed, spilling billions of liters of water downstream and flooding dozens of villages on the banks of the Dnieper River.
kyiv accused Russia, whose troops controlled the dam at the time, of blowing it up to thwart a planned Ukrainian counter-offensive. Moscow, for its part, accused Ukraine. Dozens of people were killed in floods following the dam failure, which also caused significant environmental damage in southern Ukraine.
