The Ukrainian scientific community is waiting for the water to be drained from the flooded areas before assessing the overall environmental impact of the Kakhovka dam breach, but some politicians already fear an ecological disaster worse than the Chornobyl nuclear meltdown.
Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the collapse of the main concrete barrier of the dam, with the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, already accusing the Russian government and describing the event as an “environmental catastrophe”.
Although the consequences are still to be seen, the blasting of the dam has already forced the evacuation of thousands of people, flooded national parks and jeopardised water supplies to millions of people, while the future of Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia, still hanging in the balance.
In the meanwhile, the International Energy Agency tweeted that its experts at Zaporizhzhia, which is 160km upstream, are closely monitoring the situation. They said there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk at plant”, because the cooling pools are already full.
Former minister of ecology, Ostap Semerak, considers that “this will have an impact on Romania, Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria. It will be harmful for all the region” , adding that “our government has announced this is the biggest environmental catastrophe in Europe over the past 10 years, and I think it may be the worst in Ukraine since Chornobyl in 1986.”
Olena Kravchenko, the director of the Ukrainian Environment People Law NGO, said Russia’s “ecocide” risked “unprecedented environmental consequences” to the areas downstream of the Dnipro River, the Dnipro estuary, and ecosystems in the coastal area of the Black Sea.
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