The United Nations, Russia and Ukraine have all condemned the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant as a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe, while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) excluded immediate safety risks to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations, Russia and Ukraine have all condemned the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant as a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe, while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) excluded immediate safety risks to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths on Tuesday warned of the grave consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam in southern Ukraine, describing it as possibly the most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
"The sheer magnitude of the catastrophe will only become fully realized in the coming days. But it is already clear that it will have grave and far-reaching consequences for thousands of people in southern Ukraine," he told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
Also on Tuesday, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi excluded immediate risks to the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after the damage of the power plant.
The IAEA staff stationed at the plant have been informed about the consequence of the damage and they reported that the plant is "making all efforts to pump as much water into its cooling channels and related systems as possible," according to Grossi.
The IAEA chief called on all sides to protect a nearby large cooling pond, which can provide an alternative source of cooling water for "some months" in emergencies.
Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations over the attack on the hydroelectric power plant.
The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting on the situation in Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York, on June 6, 2023. UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths on Tuesday warned of the grave consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam in southern Ukraine. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant "by the armed forces of Ukraine," calling on the international community "to condemn the criminal acts of the Ukrainian authorities."
Denouncing the event as "a terrorist act directed against the infrastructure of a purely civilian purpose," the ministry said it was planned in advance and purposefully by Kiev for military purposes as part of the so-called "counteroffensive" of the Ukraine army.
Kiev not only subjected the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant to massive shelling, but also deliberately brought the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir to a critical level, opening the floodgates of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station, it said.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian forces had destroyed the Kakhovka dam. According to Ukraine's state-run nuclear energy operator Energoatom, the destruction of the dam may have negative consequences for the Zaporizhzhia plant.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, one of Europe's largest nuclear power plants, has been controlled by Russian forces since early March last year.■