British intelligence agencies are investigating the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak said Tuesday, according to UK’s PA Media.
“Our military and intelligence agencies are currently looking at it, so it’s too soon to pre-empt that and make a definitive judgment,” Sunak told reporters as he traveled to Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden, according to PA Media.
“But what I can say is if it is intentional, it would represent, I think, the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, and just would demonstrate the new lows that we would have seen from Russian aggression,” he continued. “Attacks on civilian infrastructure are appalling and wrong. We’ve seen previous instances of that in this conflict so far, but it’s too early to say definitively.”
When asked if he will discuss the issue with Biden during their meeting on Thursday, Sunak said: “Of course, I’ll be discussing Ukraine with President Biden, generally, but the immediate response is humanitarian.”
“We had already put resources and funding in place to support both the UN and the Red Cross to respond to situations like this,” Sunak added. “And they are now being able to divert those resources to particularly help the humanitarian response and the evacuation in this area as a result of what’s happened.”
everal Ukrainian regions that get some of their water supply from the reservoir of the Nova Kakhovka dam, which collapsed overnight, are making efforts to conserve water.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the local authorities have asked people in the Nikopol and Kryvyi Rih districts – parts of which are supplied by the reservoir – to “stock technical water and drinking water.” Serhii Lysak, the Ukrainian regional governor clarified on Telegram that “both of them have water available as of now.”
About 70% of the city of Kryvyi Rih was supplied by the reservoir, Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city military administration, said on his Telegram channel, adding that the situation there is difficult but controlled.
Vilkul listed a number of measures to conserve water, including reducing water pressure overnight, asking businesses to limit consumption and banning the use of hoses.
“We realized the risks of not having Kakhovka water a year ago and have already implemented a large list of technical measures to ensure the city’s life in these conditions, which now gives us a head start,” he said.
In the Nikopol district, all water utilities are operating normally, according to the local authority.
Officials are asking people not to use their stockpiled water “as long as there is water in the tap and in the store. This is your stockpile for the period when the water is gone and the water delivery will just start. Of course, if such a period comes.”
In the Ukrainian-held part of the Zaporizhzhia region, only one settlement may face challenges with its water supply, said Yurii Malashko, the head of the Ukrainian regional military administration. That would only occur if the water levels dropped below 14 meters, in which case Malashko said there would be water tankers to supply drinking water.
Source : CNN News
