Ukraine’s Kakhovka Dam

• The Soviet-era Kakhovka dam, which separates Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, was breached, causing flooding to spread throughout the conflict area.
• The attack has been attributed to both Russia and Ukraine, which has heightened tensions between the two nations.

ABOUT KAKHOVKA DAM

• The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant is in the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson The city is currently under Russian occupation.
• The dam is one of six that line the Dnipro river, which flows from the country’s far north to the Black Sea.
• It was constructed during the Soviet era. Russia holds the left, or southern, bank in the Kherson region, while Ukraine has the right, or northern, bank.
• The dam, 30 metres (98 feet) tall and 2 km (2 miles) long, was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.
• The reservoir also provides water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor, which is also under Russian control, and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia claims to have annexed in 2014.
• It has a reservoir with a volume of 18 km3, which is roughly equivalent to the Great Salt Lake in the U.S. state of Utah.

ZAPORIZHZHIA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

• It is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe and is located in the southeast of Ukraine.
• One of only four nuclear power plants in operation in the nation, the plant features six nuclear reactors.
• It produces up to 42 billion kWh of power, or around 40% of the electricity produced by all Ukrainian NPPs combined and one-fifth of the nation’s yearly electrical output.
• Despite not posing an immediate threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), experts from Ukraine and the UN indicated that the collapse of the Kakhovka dam will have long-term effects on the plant’s future.