DAM BLAST
‘Lunatic’ Putin ‘turning nuke plant into improvised atomic bomb’ that could hit millions after Ukraine dam is blown up
VLADIMIR Putin is essentially turning a Ukrainian power plant into a makeshift nuclear bomb after blowing up a key dam nearby, an ex-Brit commander has warned.
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who headed radiological, chemical, and nuclear warfare units from the UK and Nato, blasted Vlad as a “lunatic” and a “terrorist”.
13
13
13
Ukraine has been devastated once again as a key hydroelectric dam blew up and collapsed at around 2am today flooding a huge area around Nova Kakhovka.
Some 80 towns and villages face being flooded as 18 million cubic metres of water (4.8billion gallons) - the same amount as in the US's vast Great Salt Lake - comes pouring from the breached dam towards the city of Kherson.
Both sides have blamed the other - but suspicions firmly lie with the Russians who are believed to have planted bombs on the dam.
And the dam provides power for the region and water to help cool the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).
read more on ukraine
Colonel de Bretton-Gordon warned there could be catastrophic consequences if the dam explosion interferes with the plant’s essential water or power supplies.
He told The Sun Online the Russians are basically turning the plant into an “improvised nuclear device” because of their recklessness.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials said they are monitoring the rapidly developing situation.
IAEA officials said the water level in the reservoir that feeds the plant was rapidly decreasing after the dam breach.
Most read in The Sun
And should the water level fall below 12.7 metres, the station can no longer pump vital cooling water for the reactors.
However, the IAEA insisted there was no “immediate risk”.
The plant has six nuclear reactors - five in cold shutdown and one in hot shutdown - and is currently being run by a skeleton crew.
Colonel de Bretton-Gordon explained that even though the reactors are powered down, they could still go critical if they cannot get enough water or power to keep them cool.
Blowing up the dam shows “escalation and desperation” by the Russians, he said, and he called for immediate international involvement to secure ZNPP.
Disaster at the plant could send radiation clouds blowing into Europe - and potentially into Russia - impacting millions of people.
And the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam shows nothing is off the table for the Russians, including potentially using the ZNPP as a weapon.
“There is a lot of nuclear fuel in the reactors and it needs a lot of water and power to keep it cool,” Colonel de Bretton-Gordon told The Sun Online.
“It is absolutely careless, a terrorist act by a terrorist state, it's almost unbelievable.”
Power cuts caused by the flooding could potentially leave ZNPP running on aging Soviet-era diesel generators.
And if those fail, we could be looking at “another Chernobyl”, he warned.
“Even though it's a well-built modern power station, this would not have been considered - it's almost too ridiculous,” he said.
“But now you’ve got a lunatic like Putin running things who is prepared to do anything it's very challenging.”
He added there must now be a demilitarised zone imposed around ZNPP to lower the threat of nuclear disaster.
“Ultimately this is another nail in Putin’s coffin - and we have to keep our fingers crossed the plant doesn’t go bang,” said the expert.
“Everything must be done to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
But he warned the world is no longer dealing with a “normal reasonable state” in Russia.
Today, the world must...understand that this is an attempt by terrorists to raise the stakes and scare everyone with a possible nuclear disaster
Andriy Yermak
Zaporizhzhia has been occupied by the Russians since last March - with brave engineers working to keep the plant’s six reactors table.
Fighting has sporadically erupted around the plant as fears of nuclear disaster hang overhead.
Ukrainian cities nearby have drawn up evacuation plans and stockpiled radiation pills in case of a disaster at the power station.
And workers at the plant have warned they fear the plant is a catastrophe “waiting to happen”.
Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration, wrote on Telegram: "Today, the world must...understand that this is an attempt by terrorists to raise the stakes and scare everyone with a possible nuclear disaster."
Colonel de Bretton-Gordon said the dam attack is further evidence the Russians simply “don’t care” - even as they insist they want to “occupy” Zaporizhzhia.
The destruction of the dam also cuts off water for people in the Crimea, which the Russians have occupied since 2014.
And he explained the immediate objective for the Russians will be to use the flooding to slow the Ukrainian counter-offensive by “creating an obstacle”.
Russian soldiers were reported to be fleeing yesterday as the Ukrainians started to once against push East.
“This is a desperate roll of the dice, it's one short of going nuclear or using chemical weapons,” said Colonel de Bretton-Gordon.
“The Russians realise what the Ukrainians have with their attacking force is very potent, and they are doing all they can to stop them.
“This is a terrible crime - another war crime to add to Putin’s charge sheet - but I’m sure the high command in Kyiv would have war-gamed this situation.
“But it will affect tens if not hundreds of thousands of people.
“And god forbid if Zaporizhzhia goes critical, it could affect millions of people.”
He said should the plant explode - it would be down to the prevailing wind where the radiation spreads, potentially blowing West into Europe or East into Russia.
13
13
13
13
Ukrainian officials have said several villages have been "completely or partially flooded" following damage to the dam - and evacuations have begun.
Russian emergency services said that around 600 houses had been flooded and a state of emergency has been declared in the Nova Kakhovka district.
Kyiv accused Vladimir Putin's troops of destroying the 100ft Soviet-era dam that forms the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency said on Telegram that Russian forces blew up the dam "in panic," describing it as "an obvious act of terrorism and a warcrime."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that the Russians must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land."
While Presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak added: "The terrorists' goal is obvious - to create obstacles for the offensive actions of the armed forces."
Top Ukrainian diplomat Anton Korynevych branded the destruction of the dam the action of a "terrorist state" speaking at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
He said: "Russia cannot defeat us on the battlefield, so it targets civilian infrastructure to try to freeze us into submission. Just today Russia blew up a major dam.
"It is causing significant civilian evacuations, ecological damages and is threatening the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
"Russia's actions are the actions of a terrorist state, an aggressor."
Meanwhile, Russia-installed mayor, Vladimir Leontyev warned the water level at the town next to the breached Nova Kakhovka dam could rise by up to 39ft while authorities said the water level in the town was expected to rise for the next 72 hours.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson military administration said that about "16,000 people are in the critical zone on the right bank of the Kherson region" before adding that there was flooding in eight areas along the Dnipro River.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry wrote on Telegram that the dam had been blown up, and called for residents of the ten villages on the sides of the river and parts of Kherson to flee.
13
13
"The Kakhovka (dam) was blown up by the Russian occupying forces," the South command of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on its Facebook page.
"The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified."
A Ukrainian warning was issued to residents on the left bank of the Dnieper to "evacuate as soon as possible".
"As a result of mining of the dam, there is an increase in the water level downstream.
"Water can reach a critical level in six hours."
Russian sources blamed Ukraine with Moscow-appointed Leontyev, confirming the upper part of the dam was destroyed.
He said: “At about 2 am, numerous strikes were carried out on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
“As a result, water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to uncontrollably be discharged downstream."
Other sources said there had been an ";explosion" at 2:35am after which the destruction of the dam occurred within an hour.
Eyewitnesses reported "a deafening explosion" from Kakhovka in the early morning.
Speaking to Economist's Oliver Carroll, they said the "sky turned to white and windows breaking as far as 80 km away."
EU chief Charles Michel pledged to hold Russia accountable for the "war crime" of destroying civilian infrastructure.
He wrote on social media: "Shocked by the unprecedented attack of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
"The destruction of civilian infrastructure clearly qualifies as a war crime -- and we will hold Russia and its proxies accountable.
He said he would propose "more assistance to the flooded areas" at their next summit in Brussels this month.
"My thoughts with all the families in Ukraine affected by this catastrophe," he wrote.
Ukraine's nuclear operator Energoatom said in a Telegram statement that the blowing up of the dam could have "negative consequences" for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's biggest, but noted that for now the situation is controllable.
Energoatom chief Petro Kotin said the fall in the levels of the Kakhovka reservoir would not affect the level of water in cooling ponds at the facility's spent nuclear fuel storage pools.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency wrote on Twitter that its experts were closely monitoring the situation at the plant, and there was "no immediate nuclear safety risk" at the facility.
Its chief Rafael Grossi said that a prolonged absence of cooling water at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant would disrupt the work of its emergency diesel generators.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, visiting Ukraine today blamed the destruction of a dam in southern Ukraine on Russia's invasion.
He said: "I've heard reports of the explosion on the dam and the risk of flooding.
"It's too early to make any kind of meaningful assessment of the details. But it's worth remembering that the only reason this is an issue at all is because of Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"We'll continue to assess the developing situation, but the best thing Russia could do now is withdraw their troops immediately."
Previous estimates have suggested that a break in the dam would cause "catastrophe on a grand scale", Zelensky has said.
Potentially hundreds of thousands of people would be in danger of flooding - including Kherson.
A vast area depends on the reservoir for its water supply.
An explosion on the dam in November 2022 caused damage but not enough to open the floodgates.
The breaking of the dam has chilling echoes of Russian tactics used in World War 2.
Russian tyrant Joseph Stalin ordered the destruction of the Dnieper dam in then-Soviet Ukraine to slow the advance of the Nazis.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
And the explosion resulted in a wall of water flooding villages along the riverbanks, killing thousands of civilians.
Russia defended the move as necessary as they needed to cover their retreat in an act of what was described as "sacrificial sabotage".
13
13
13
13
Topics