Moscow assesses damage from Kakhovka dam destruction

Russian authorities have declared a federal state of emergency in Kherson Region in the aftermath of the Kakhovka dam breach, which Moscow insists was blown up by a Ukrainian strike.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) said that an operational evaluation suggests that damage from the emergency in Kherson Region, which saw several riverside towns flooded, exceeded 1.2 billion rubles ($14 million).

Alexandr Kurenkov, the head of EMERCOM, said this figure meant that the disaster would be treated as a federal-level emergency and warrants a response on a relevant scale.

Earlier in the day, EMERCOM said that it had so far saved 2,237 people, including 194 children and 138 physically impaired persons in Kherson Region while having evacuated more than 7,000 people from the risk zone.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Saldo, the local governor, delivered a report to Russian President Vladimir Putin, providing details on the relief operation in the area. He claimed that “active and well-orchestrated” actions of first responders, military and local authorities allowed the region to “get through this major disaster with minimum losses.” He also vowed that the flooded areas would be “completely restored.”

The figure provided by the EMERCOM is a significant drop from the preliminary assessment of the damage by the chair of the regional government, Andrey Alekseenko, who said on Saturday that the dam breach could potentially cost 11.5 billion rubles ($135 million).

The Kakhovka dam collapsed last Tuesday, resulting in the flooding of both banks of the Dnieper River and multiple deaths. Ukraine and Russia have since traded accusations over who is to blame for the disaster.

While Kiev officials claimed that Moscow had blown up the dam to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive, on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the notion, saying that his country was not interested in the facility’s destruction because it would spell “severe consequences for those territories that we control and which are Russian.”

He added that he was sorry that the dam destruction thwarted the Ukrainian offensive in the area, describing the terrain as extremely unfavorable for the attacker even before the incident.

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