A dam belonging to the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant was hit Monday morning during one of the largest Russian drone and missile barrages of the war so far, bringing fears of possible flooding.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former Ukrainian minister of economy, said on X (formerly Twitter) that the attack across the country, which involved more than 100 missiles and 100 drones, “struck the Kyiv hydro dam.”
The Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant, which is operated by the Ukrainian state hydropower company Ukrhydroenergo, is located on the Dnieper River in Ukraine’s Kyiv oblast, to the north of the Ukrainian capital. It is key to the stabilization of water levels in the Kyiv Reservoir.
“While the dam holds, the hydro power plant appears to be damaged. If the dam were to collapse, a significant portion of Kyiv would be flooded,” Mylovanov wrote. “After a collapse, the number of casualties could be in the hundreds of thousands, though it’s difficult to predict. It’s still unclear whether this was a direct hit or the result of debris.”
Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, said on X that Russia targeted the dam, “with one missile striking it.”
“If the dam breaks, millions of people downstream can die,” Trofimov wrote on X, sharing footage that appears to show the aftermath of the strike.
Sergej Sumlenny, founder of the European Resilience Initiative Center, a German think tank, said on X that the Kyiv dam holds 3.7 billion tons of water.
“So a breach of Kyiv dam would kill thousands of civilians in Kyiv and nearby towns. Russia must be stopped by force. Now,” he wrote.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council’s Center for Countering Disinformation, confirmed the strike but said “destroying [the dam] with missiles is impossible.”
“Regarding the Kyiv HPP dam — there are no threats,” he said on his Telegram channel, according to Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine.
Citing an unnamed source with the country’s state energy company, Forbes Ukraine similarly reported that Russia attempted to destroy the power plant in Monday’s attack but that there was no threat of a dam breach.
Newsweek has contacted Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry by email for comment.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s missile and drone barrage, saying it was one of the largest attacks of the war so far.
“A combined strike, involving over a hundred missiles of various types and around a hundred ‘Shaheds,'” Zelensky said in a statement describing the attack.
“Currently, across the country, efforts are underway to eliminate the consequences of the Russian strike,” he said. “Like most Russian strikes before, this one was equally insidious, targeting critical civilian infrastructure. The energy sector has sustained significant damage, but in every area affected by power outages, restoration work is already in progress.”
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