7 missing in Kakhovka after the destruction of power plant: Mayor

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
7 Jun 2023 11:05

The mayor revealed citing preliminary data that 22,000 to 40,000 people were in the disaster zone during the destruction of the power plant.

Streets are flooded in Kherson, Tuesday, Jun 6, 2023, after the Kakhovka dam was blown up overnight (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

The Russian-appointed Mayor of Nova-Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, revealed that seven locals were reported to be missing after the destruction of the city's Hydroelectric Power Plant.

"We are now finding out information about missing persons, but, preliminary, these people were evacuated from the flooding areas that ceased to exist — the islands. Shepherds were there ... There are about seven people, of whom we know for sure [that they are missing]," Leontyev told reporters.

Leontyev noted that after the explosion the water levels have significantly risen. Despite decreasing by 3.5 meters the water level remains very high. He added that emergency workers in boats are still searching for the missing people.

The mayor also revealed citing preliminary data that 22,000 to 40,000 people were in the disaster zone during the destruction of the power plant.

According to Renat Karchaa, an advisor to the head of Rosenergoatom, a division of the Russian state nuclear energy business Rosatom, the crew at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) is fully ensuring the safety of the facility's operation.

"The professionalism of the employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant … is quite high. From a professional point of view, the safe operation of the plant is being ensured in full, in accordance with all standards ... Russia is doing everything possible and impossible to ensure the safe operation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," Karchaa said.

Only Ukraine is currently a threat to the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the official continued.

"A nuclear incident has never happened rather in spite of than thanks to. Why? Just as all the threats to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were coming from the side controlled by the Ukrainian regime last summer, they are still coming to date," he said.

On Tuesday, the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was blown by shelling unleashing a flood of water across the war zone.

Reports warned that the critically rising water levels could threaten 80 local settlements and that the damage to the dam will also lead to problems with water supplies to Crimea.

Three communities in the Kherson Region's Nova Kakhovka district have been entirely flooded as a result of the demolition of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.

Shelling earlier in the day destroyed the top portion of the Kakhovka facility, and according to local officials, the dam's construction was partially undermined by shelling, resulting in the demolition of three spans under water pressure.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Ukrainian troops damaged the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in order to shift certain military units from the Kherson direction to their assault region.

Additionally, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia declared that Russia seeks a Security Council meeting over the Ukrainian attacks that triggered major flooding in the Kherson region. Ukraine has also requested a UNSC meeting.