The blowing up of the Kakhovka Dam dominates the headlines about the Ukraine war. An expert explains why Russia's army has probably created a huge problem for itself.
Munich/Kakhovka/Crimea – Tens of thousands of people are fleeing the floods: The alleged blowing up of the Kakhovka Dam by Russia has triggered a huge humanitarian and ecological catastrophe in the Kherson region, in the midst of the fighting of the Ukraine war.
Blowing up the Kakhovka Dam: water supply of Russian troops in danger?
The consequences can only be foreseen gradually, for example with regard to the cooling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP). According to Ukrainian sources, 600 square kilometers of land were flooded as of Thursday evening (June 8, 19 p.m.). But does the explosion affect not only the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, but also Crimea in the Black Sea?
According to an expert, the water supply of Russian troops on the Black Sea peninsula may now be massively affected.
The destroyed Kakhovka dam: Huge masses of water are penetrating into the interior of the Kherson region. © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
"After Ukraine closed the North Crimean Canal after 2014 (after the annexation by Moscow, editor's note) and thus cut off the water supply, this led to a threatening water shortage, especially in the drought year 2020 in Crimea," explains Dr. Klaus Gestwa IPPEN. MEDIA: "This underlined the vulnerability of the peninsula annexed by Russia." Historian Gestwa is an expert on the history of Eastern Europe at the University of Tübingen. For example, the 60-year-old scientist studied in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Even today, in the turmoil of the war, he maintains informal contacts with acquaintances in Russia. Which, through its own fault, risks the whole of Crimea?
Blowing up the Kakhovka Dam: North Crimean Canal massively affected
To put this into perspective, the North Crimean Canal begins at Nova Kakhovka on the Dnieper River (Dnipro), which is dammed to form the Kakhovka reservoir. Exactly where the reservoir dam was allegedly blown up - apparently without regard for their own Russian troops. The canal runs in its sequence, which is completely overridden by the floods, through the Kherson Oblast in a southerly direction and over the isthmus of Perekop through the north of Crimea via Sovetsky to Kerch in the east of the peninsula. This means that the infrastructure of large parts of Crimea is supplied with the water of the canal. Actually.
"The peninsula is directly connected in the Black Sea only with the Ukrainian mainland. At that time, the large Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was built in the lower reaches of the Dnipro together with the huge reservoir, on the banks of which Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, is now located," Gestva explains the importance of the canal for life in Crimea: "The North Crimean Canal, built after 1950, branches off from this so-called 'Cossack Sea', which was completed at the end of the 1961s and connects the entire peninsula with the Crimean Canal. (for example, drinking water, ed.) and supplies the necessary water for tourism."
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There is probably another effect: According to Gestwa's sources, the Russian population is always unsettled because of the historical significance of the peninsula when - despite the news blackout - negative news from Crimea reaches the Russian cities between nearby Rostov-on-Don and the huge metropolises of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Is Crimea running out of water? Expert thinks there is concern in Russia
"Sevastopol has already been attacked by Ukraine with drones and missiles in November 2022 and again in March 2023. Recently, a militarily important fuel depot was set on fire there. In September 2022, several Russian fighter jets were even destroyed in an attack on a military airfield," the Eastern Europe expert counts in an interview with IPPEN. MEDIA: "Shortly thereafter, there was an explosion on the Crimean bridge, which Putin personally inaugurated in 2018. These Ukrainian military strikes proved to be sensitive indications for the Russian side that the dynamics of the war have long since reversed and that the Russian aggressor has been put on the defensive." (pm)
