World丨Thousands evacuated after dam destruction
▲Photo/VCG
Residents sloshed through knee-deep waters in inundated homes as videos posted on social media showed scenes, including rescue workers carrying people to safety, and what looked like the triangular roof of an entire building that had been uprooted drifting downstream. Footage taken from the air showed waters filling the streets on the eastern side of the river.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the destruction of the power plant "by the armed forces of Ukraine", calling on the international community "to condemn the criminal acts of the Ukrainian authorities".
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had destroyed the dam. According to Ukraine's state-run nuclear energy operator Energoatom, the destruction of the dam may have negative consequences for the Zaporizhzhia 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 dam, 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.
A Chinese envoy on Tuesday also voiced grave concerns over the destruction of the dam.
The reservoir, formed by the dam, is also a major source of cooling water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. China notes that the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that the dam's destruction has not posed any safety risk to the nuclear power plant. However, as the water in the reservoir continues to recede, it may not be possible to continue pumping water to the nuclear power plant in the future.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Agencies via Xinhua