"Only" Russians could have caused Kherson dam to collapse, Ukrainian lawmaker says
Inna Sovsun, a member of Ukraine's parliament, on Tuesday blamed Russia for the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, claiming it was part of Moscow's efforts to prevent a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
"The explosion came from within, so it had to be done by someone who had control over the territory, and those are the Russians," Sovsun told CNN's Erin Burnett.
"They are the only ones who could have actually done this," she added. "We do not have access to the territory now and we did not have access to the territory yesterday to set up such an explosion."
Kyiv and Moscow have both blamed each other for the breach of the dam and hydroelectric power plant in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine's southern Kherson region. However, it remains unclear what caused the breach. A CNN analysis of satellite imagery shows the facility was damaged just days before suffering the structural collapse.
Sovsun said the dam's collapse had drawn Ukrainian military personnel away from a potential counteroffensive amid mass evacuations and fears of large-scale devastation.
"People who could have been engaged in the counteroffensive efforts are now doing evacuation, are now helping with humanitarian aid," she said.
"It is part of the plan to suspend the counteroffensive. Whether it will be successful or not, I think the coming days will show."
Some context: US and Western officials see signs that Ukraine’slong-awaited counteroffensiveagainst Russia is beginning and have noted a “substantial increase in fighting” in the east of the country as Ukrainian troops probe for weaknesses in Russian defensive lines, a senior NATO official said on Tuesday. But thedestruction of the dam could complicate some of Ukraine's plans, officials told CNN.
Civilians killed after Russian strikes, Ukraine's military says
From CNN's Josh Pennington
A number of people have been killed and wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine over the past day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine said early Wednesday.
The military said all 35 missiles launched by Russia had been destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses.
"The enemy also launched 41 airstrikes and fired 57 MLRS salvos," the military said, adding that damage occurred to residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
It's early morning in Kherson, where a major dam collapsed yesterday. Here's what you should know
From CNN staff
A critical dam and hydroelectric power plant in the Russian-occupied southern Kherson region of Ukraine suffered a collapseearly Tuesday.
A UN aid chief said the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam is possibly the "most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure" since the start of Russia’s invasion.
The incident has prompted mass evacuations, flooding and fears of large-scale devastation. According to the Nova Kakhovka zoo,300 animals diedTuesday in the collapse's aftermath.
Ukrainian troopswitnessed Russian soldiers being swept upin floodwaters and fleeing the east bank of the Dnipro River after the collapse, an officer in Ukraine's armed forces said. Many Russian troops were killed or wounded, the officer said.
Here's what you should know to get up to speed:
- Pointing fingers:Both Kyiv and Moscowaccused each otherof being behind the major breach of the dam, althoughit is unclear whether the dam was deliberately attackedor if the collapse was the result of structural failure.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyhas describedthe collapse as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction” while the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was caused by an “act of sabotage” by Ukraine. Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said Russia's war in Ukraine is responsible for the catastrophic damage followingthe breach.
- Dam collapse aftermath:In a frontline city like Kherson — where the shelling is constant — the rising waterbrings an added danger. USAID said it isworking closelywith humanitarian partners to assist those impacted by flooding. Several Ukrainian regions that get some of their water supply from the dam's reservoir aremaking efforts to conserve water. British intelligence agencies areinvestigating the collapse, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak said Tuesday, according to the UK's PA Media.And according to Ukraine's state nuclear regulatory inspectorate, problems due to the collapsecan be avoidedat the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant if "necessary measures are taken."
- Funding aid to Ukraine: Michael McCaul, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said he believes Congress willpass more fundingfor Ukraine, despite Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s warning that more funding for the war must fall under the budget caps in the newdebt ceiling law.Also, Ukraine is waiting for final agreements with its allies on thedelivery of F-16 jets, Zelensky told journalists on Tuesday.
- Nord Stream developments:The US received intelligence from a European ally last year that the Ukrainian military wasplanning an attackon the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines three months before they were hit, threeUS officials told CNN. Theattack on the pipelines last Septemberhas been condemned by US officials and Western allies alike as a sabotage on critical infrastructure. It is currently being investigated by other European nations.
Nova Kakhovka dam collapse means added danger for embattled city of Kherson, official says
From CNN's Vasco Cotovio,Frederik Pleitgen,William BonnettandDaria Markina Tarasova in Kherson, Ukraine
Nadejda Chernishova breathes a sigh of relief as she steps off a rubber dinghy, moments after being rescued from her flooded home inKherson.
“I’m not afraid now, but it was scary in my home,” the 65-year-old retiree said. “You don’t know where the water is going, and it was coming from all sides.”
Her house in one of the lower lying districts of Kherson was flooded after the Nova Kakhovka dam, 58 kilometers (36 miles) up the Dnipro River in Russian-occupied Ukraine, was destroyed earlier on Tuesday.
“[The water] went up in an instant,” she added. “In the morning there was nothing.”
Chernishova left most of her small world behind, bringing only what she was able to muster: two suitcases and her most prized possession.
“This is my cat Sonechka, a beauty,” she said, lifting the lid of a small her pet carrier and revealing a frightened animal. “She is scared, she is a domestic cat who has never been outside.”
Chernishova is one of hundreds being evacuated by Ukrainian authorities in Kherson, where the water has spread across several blocks and into the center of the city, cutting off some areas entirely.
“Civilians are being evacuated from the Karobel district. More than 1,200 people have already been evacuated from this area [on Tuesday],” the head of Kherson region military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin told CNN at the scene.
Prokudin, who has been overseeing rescue efforts in towns and cities downstream from Nova Kakhovka, said the operation has become more difficult with time as flood waters continue to rise.
“If in the morning we could do it with cars, then with trucks, now we see that big cars can no longer pass,” he explained. “The water has risen so much that we are now using boats. About eight boats of various types are currently working to evacuate people from the area.”
CNN witnessed the speed at which the waters kept rising, with the water penetrating one block into the city in less than an hour. The flow of water visibly increasing to the naked eye.
Read more here.
Dam collapse possibly the most significant damage to civilian infrastructure since start of war, UN says
From CNN’s Richard Roth and Hira Humayun
The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam is possibly the “most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Martin Griffiths,UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The dam is a lifeline in the region as a critical water source for millions of people in Kherson as well as Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, he said, and a key source of agricultural irrigation in southern Kherson and the Crimean peninsula — impacting farming and food production.
Griffiths added that a severe impact is expected in Russian-occupied areas where humanitarian agencies are still struggling to gain access.
The UN aid chief, speaking to the Security Council on Tuesday, also highlighted the danger fast-moving water poses to the risks of mine and explosive ordnance contamination, displacing the projectiles to areas previously assessed as safe.
Griffiths pointed out the impact the dam’s collapse will have on electricity generation and the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“The damage caused by the dam’s destruction means that life will become intolerably harder for those already suffering from the conflict,” Griffiths said, “The consequences of not being able to deliver assistance to the millions of people affected by the flooding in these areas are potentially catastrophic.”
Satellite images show Nova Kakhovka dam was damaged days before collapse
From CNN’s Allegra Goodwin and Gianluca Mezzofiore
The criticalNova Kakhovka damin southern Ukraine was damaged just days before suffering a major structural collapse in the late evening of Monday or early hours of Tuesday, a CNN analysis reveals.
CNN cannot independently verify whether the damage to the road bridge played a part in the dam’s collapse, or whether it was destroyed in a deliberate attack by one of the warring parties.
Satellite imagery from Maxar shows the road bridge that ran across the dam was intact on May 28, but imagery from June 5 shows a section of the same bridge missing. Analysis of lower resolution satellite imagery suggests the loss of the bridge section took place between June 1 and 2.
Some background:Meanwhile, data shows water levels in the reservoir behind the dam were at record highs last month, according to the Hydroweb information service. Levels had plummeted earlier in the year, the same data shows, prompting Ukrainian officials in February to warn of possible shortages in drinking water supplies, and water for agricultural use.
US and Western officials see signs Ukraine's counteroffensive is beginning
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand,Alex Marquardt,Jim SciuttoandJennifer Hansler
US and Western officials see signs that Ukraine’slong-awaited counteroffensiveagainst Russia is beginning and have noted a “substantial increase in fighting” in the east of the country over the past 48 hours as Ukrainian troops probe for weaknesses in Russian defensive lines, a senior NATO official said on Tuesday.
While preliminary attacks, also known as “shaping” operations, have been underway for at least two weeks, Ukrainian forces have in the past several days begun testing Russian positions with artillery strikes and ground attacks to find vulnerable areas they can break through, the NATO official and a senior European military intelligence official told CNN.
Thedestruction of a sprawling dam in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson region, which triggered a wave of evacuations on Tuesday as floods of water spilled from the Nova Kakhovka hydro-electric plant, could complicate some of Ukraine’s plans, officials told CNN.
The dam’s destruction could now make it more difficult for Ukrainian troops to cross the Dnipro River and attack Russian positions there, said two Western officials. And the dam’s collapse has already created a significant humanitarian challenge into which the Ukrainian government will need to address and funnel resources.
“Anything that may have been planned downstream from the dam probably has to be replanned,” a European ambassador in Washington said. “Ultimately, the water levels will recede, but most likely, the catastrophic flooding has impacted the bridges and roads in the area, so they may not be usable in the way as planned before.”
The US and the Western intelligence community are still examining who is responsible for the dam’s destruction, but officials are leaning toward Russia as the culprit, the official said.
Read more here.
US received intel that Ukraine was planning attack on Nord Stream pipelines, officials say
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand,Alex MarquardtandHaley Britzky
The US received intelligence from a European ally last year that the Ukrainian military was planning an attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines three months before they were hit, three US officials told CNN.
The attack on the pipelines last September has been condemned by US officials and Western allies alike as a sabotage on critical infrastructure. It is currently being investigated by other European nations.
The intelligence assessment wasfirst disclosed by The Washington Post, which obtained the document from a trove of classified documents allegedly leaked on the social media platform Discord by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.
CNN has not seen the document but the three officials confirmed the US was told about the Ukrainian plans.
According to the Washington Post, the intelligence cited a source in Ukraine which said Western allies “had a basis to suspect Kyiv in the sabotage” for almost a year. The intelligence said that those who may have been responsible were reporting directly to Ukraine’s commander in chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, “who was put in charge so that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, wouldn’t know about the operation,” the Post reported.
But, the intelligence also said that Ukraine’s military operation was “put on hold.”
CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian government for comment.
White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby declined to address the reporting directly on Tuesday.
“I think you know there are three countries conducting an investigation of the Nord Stream sabotage — and we called it sabotage at the moment — Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. Those investigations are ongoing and again the last thing that we’re going to want to do from this podium is get ahead of those investigations,” Kirby said.
Read more here.