Kakhovka Dam Destruction: Negative Impact on Global Food Security and Calls for International Investigation

The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine will have a negative impact on global food security, UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephen Dujarric quoted the FAO as saying. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for an international investigation into the dam’s destruction.

Floods caused by the breach of the Kakhovka dam destroyed thousands of hectares of crops, the UN spokesman added. And local authorities confirmed that the destruction of the dam destroyed irrigation systems in the Dnipro, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

Meanwhile, Ukraine confirmed that its forces in Bakhmut, in the east of the country, had switched from a defensive to an offensive position. It advanced between 200 and 1,100 meters towards the city in different areas on Wednesday 7 June.

On the other hand, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said his forces had foiled eight attempts to infiltrate its fortifications at Bakhmut and confirmed that all Ukrainian attacks had failed.

Konashenkov added that his country’s army shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets in Donetsk and Zaporozhye, and more than 20 drones in other areas.

On the other hand, Russia’s Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a fire broke out at an industrial facility in the border city of Shebekino due to Ukrainian bombing.

Gladkov added that the Ukrainian army bombed the industrial area with 40 “Grad” missiles, while another 20 shells landed in different neighborhoods of the city.

Ukraine denies

Alexey Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, denied claims by Russian officials that a Ukrainian counteroffensive had begun.

“None of this is true. When this will start will be decided by our military. When we start our counter-offensive, everyone will know and see,” Danilov told Reuters in an interview.

He added that Russian officials mistakenly believed that the Ukrainian advance in some parts of the front line was the start of a major operation.

Danilov said there was no doubt that Russia on Tuesday caused damage to the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region of the country, which has been under Russian occupation since the start of the war.

investigation committee

On the political front, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had two separate phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a link with Ukraine’s president, Erdogan called for an international commission of inquiry into the Kakhovka dam bombing.

Zelensky, on the other hand, said he spoke with Erdogan about the humanitarian and environmental consequences of what he called Russia’s “terrorist act” at the Kakhovka hydropower plant, including Zaporozhye. danger.

In Russia, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart in a phone call that Kiev’s bombing of the Kakhovka dam was abetted by the West, calling the move a “barbaric act”.

It is worth noting that the Kakhovka Dam was built in the 1950s and is of strategic importance, responsible for pumping water into the North Crimean Canal. The canal starts in southern Ukraine and spans the entire Crimean peninsula.

Pro-Russian local authorities in Kherson said partial damage to the dam had displaced 4,000 people in the flood zone who had been moved to temporary shelters. They also announced that some 2,700 homes in flooded areas had sunk as a result of the dam explosion.

The Ukrainian president once again pointed out that the destruction of the Kakhovka dam has left hundreds of thousands of residents without drinking water.

Satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies on Tuesday, 6th, showed severe flooding in southern Ukraine, with severe damage to dams and hydropower stations in the region.

Images of the more than 2,500-square-kilometer area between Novi Kakhovka and the Dnipro Bay, southwest of Kherson overlooking the Black Sea, showed flooded towns and villages, the company said.

The images show submerged homes and buildings, many with only the roofs visible, as well as submerged gardens, land and infrastructure.