07 Jun 2023 at 06:10
Russia and Ukraine have again blamed each other for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam at a special session of the UN Security Council. The Security Council met on Tuesday night at Russia’s request to discuss the matter.
The council heard the various parties without reaching a conclusion.
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Security Council, Vasili Nebenzha, said Ukraine may have blown up the dam to punish the inhabitants of Russia’s annexed Crimea peninsula, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported. Crimea depends for its water supply on a canal that runs from the reservoir to the peninsula. That channel is now in danger of drying up.
Nebenzha also suggested, according to the news agency, that Ukraine’s actual goal was to “carry out a provocation against the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia”. That nuclear power plant, which Russia captured at the beginning of the war, depends on the reservoir for its cooling water.
Nebenzha drew scorn from Ukraine’s envoy Serhiy Kyslytsya, who said Russia always blames the victims for its crimes. He said that Russia has held the dam for more than a year and that Russian troops have undermined the dam. According to him, it was impossible to destroy the dam “from the outside by shelling”.
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The only thing the two sides agreed on is that the breach of the dam on the night from Monday to Tuesday caused a major environmental disaster in southern Ukraine. Dozens of places in the area have been flooded and thousands of people have been evacuated.
The French, British and American representatives at the Security Council called for an investigation into who is responsible. They said there is no evidence pointing to Russia, but also called it unlikely that Ukraine is behind it.
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