The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southeastern Ukraine in June has resulted in losses estimated at $14 billion, according to a report by the Ukrainian government and the United Nations on October 17th.
"These staggering figures speak for themselves. The destruction of the Kakhovka dam has led to staggering losses and damages," said Christoforos Politis, the Deputy Permanent Representative of the UN Development Programme in Ukraine, as reported by AFP.
At dawn on June 6, it became known that the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station (HES) dam had been destroyed. Ukraine accuses Russia of undermining the Kakhovka HES dam. The Kremlin referred to the dam's destruction as a "deliberate act of sabotage" by Kyiv.
Representatives of Western countries, when commenting on the dam's destruction, did not directly accuse Russia of causing it but acknowledged Moscow's responsibility for what happened, given that Russia conducted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 of the previous year and occupied part of the Kherson region, including the Kakhovka HES, turning it into a combat zone.
The likely cause of the Kakhovka HES's destruction was an explosion in the tunnel of the dam's concrete foundation, as reported by the New York Times on June 16, explicitly attributing it to Russia.
The dam's destruction resulted in significant flooding downstream, sedimentation upstream, and a shortage of drinking water in the region.
