Catastrophic Flooding Feared as Critical Ukrainian Dam Is Destroyed; Zaporizhzhia Nuke Plant at Risk

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez evacuation efforts are underway in southern Ukraine after an explosion destroyed a critical Dam on the danipro river in the russian-occupied region of Hassan Ukraine and Russia are blaming each other for the blast Ukraine's government says flood waters are threatening 80 towns and Villages as well as the city of Carson home to over 300 000 people the breach could also limit Drinking Water Supplies across Carson and Crimea the disaster has raised fears of a nuclear accident at Europe's largest nuclear power station the six reactors uparita plant which is Upstream from the dam Russian officials say the water levels of a reservoir used to hold cooling water for the plant has already fallen by more than eight feet the international atomic energy agency said there is no quote immediate nuclear safety risk Ukraine also says at least 150 tons of machine oil has been released into the danipro river Ukraine's Ambassador at large Anton karenovich spoke earlier today at the international court of justice in The Hague under the leadership of President zielinski and with the courage of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Russia cannot defeat us on the battlefield so it targets civil and infrastructure to try to freeze us into submission earlier today just today just Russia blew up a major Dam located in novakahovka causing significant civilians evacuations harsh ecological damages and attending the safety of the zapore Asia Nuclear Power Plant Russia's actions are the actions of a terrorist state an aggressor meanwhile the Russian installed governor of the Herson region Vladimir saldo blamed Ukraine for the attack on the dam the reason for this Behavior symbol there is a saying in Ukraine if I cannot eat something I will at least bite it meaning if we are unable to do something properly we will play dirty tricks and first of all it is about creating a humanitarian crisis with food shortages but you know what we will never starve because the whole of Russia is with us now another reason is to deflect attention from the horrible defeats that Ukraine faced during their counter-offensive yesterday we go now to Kiev the capital of Ukraine where we're joined by Alexi passyuk deputy director of the Ukrainian NGO Eco action where his focus is on energy and nuclear energy Alexey thanks so much for being with us um it is not clear what happened at this point what is clear is that there is Major flooding and that there is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe located in Ukraine the question is uh among other things is that threatened can you talk about what you understand at this point and what you're most concerned about yeah well I I will start that uh it's pretty clear what happened it's not very clear what are the consequences but I find that that you give too much space to Russian explanation what is happening uh it's uh it was reported already around last year that Russians have prepared mind basically the dam because it was one of the scenario what you do and there is a clear situation now with Ukraine uh uh kind of planning to start a military operation to kick off Russians from the Left Bank of Nipa River and one of the options which was on the table which was discussed is a ukrainians crossing the river so it's a kind of obvious military solution to flood the area at this moment uh now um as to the impact obviously the the territory is flooded and as with any uh similar I mean flooding and especially of these scales you have um an impact which can be caused by like facilities which on the ground which consider oily materials uh I don't know West storages all that is basically not flooded although they were not designed to withstand it um exactly as it was mentioned there is an issue of immediate impact of flooding now but then the the reservoir is also a source of water and there will be a Major Impact later through the year and the summer for the areas which use this water form agriculture basically now the reserver indeed uh over the dam um is a source of water and that's where the Parisian nuclear power plant stays but we have to understand that there was part of this area which is separated by the dam so effectively nuclear power plant has part of the reserver which will not be immediately impacted uh by the falling water level because it's separated what's a pool and also we have to recall that currently five of six units are in so-called coal shutdown so they don't produce electricity and so the demand for cooling is lower however they have one unit operational just to maintain electricity fossil supply for their own needs so there is as International atomic energy agency said there is no immediate threat because now they still have water and electricity but the question is for how long they will be able to maintain it so we Face a huge risk that power plant would not have enough water to cool down and it's not there is no obvious solution at this moment to understand how it will be solved they would need to provide water at certain moment we don't know how much water will stay in the sense that we don't realize yet how big is the match to the to the dam if they will somewhat stay in the reservoir so and of course while technically the possibility of solutions it's all happening in the combat areas it's very difficult to repair it's difficult for example to make a vacation this moment because the Russian basically shooting into the areas where vacation is happening and also there are this unexpected for normal life impacts like you have some areas which were mined and so now you have this mind basically taking over by water to the areas where they're not supposed to be so this is obviously a disaster in in very different senses and Alexa you mentioned that five of the six reactors have already been shut down though they still need to be cool to some degree uh what are the prospects for that last reactor to be shut down and why hasn't it happened so far well this is I guess a difficult choice now for people who maintain it because the power plant for cooling they need to have electricity and you have to have external supply to the power plant but we regularly saw this news when this lines were down so there were no electricity so they maintained so for cooling you need water and you need electricity to pump it so once you stop this reactor you also have higher risks that you would not be able to pump water even if you have it um I guess this is a dilemma which power plant station currently faces um Russia says this will hurt more the Russian side and that is more proof they say that Ukraine did this but then you have the Ukraine counter-offensive that is said would be thwarted by this kind of catastrophe can you talk about the situation and where we're actually talking about how critical this area is at this point in the Ukraine war well I I think Russians and this guy who you uh previously slowing who is a law occupation administration had he have a difficult time to explain to the citizens why Russia which is supposed to save them flood them uh for for ukrainians there is no reason to that that's Ukrainian citizens basically we we get is the country to to get them back uh again there is an expectation of the military Advance by um uh Ukrainian side and when you were saying the Demos in the occupied territory the dam is on the river which currently separate to uh two sides so Ukraine is planning offensive and they were also planning to go across the river to the Russian control areas and flooding in this sense is effective I assume it was blown up at this moment because Russians assumes that ukrainians are ready to start moving forward in that area and uh well actually we only have about a minute left but I was wondering your sense of the the counter-offensive that Ukraine has been supposedly launching in the last couple of days uh what you're hearing in Kiev about it well I don't follow this military part but I think it's long expected and I think the main message which we currently hear from the state is to be quiet about it because if uh so there is very little information and I think whoever would have it would not share it well Alexi Patrick we want to thank you for being with us deputy director of the Ukrainian NGO Eco action where his focus is on energy and nuclear energy joining us from the capital of Ukraine Kiev and that does it for our show following up in our previous discussion on Julian Assange to see our interviews with Julian Assange when he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy taking refuge and before that when he was free go to democracynow.org democracy Now is produced with Renee Felts Mike Burke Dina Guster Messiah Rhodes nermen Shea Maria teresina Tammy warrenov charina nadura Sam alkoff tamari astudio John Hamilton Robbie Karen honey Masood and Sanji Lopez our executive director is Julie Crosby special thanks to Becca Staley John Randolph Paul Powell Mike defilippo Miguel negera Hugh Grant Dennis Moynihan David prude and Dennis McCormick if you'd like to sign up for our daily Digest go to democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman in New York with Juan Gonzalez in Chicago our website is democracynow.org thanks for joining us friends

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 66,995

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: P8_g6d-RK58

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023