Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of plotting to blow up the Dnipro River’s Kakhovka hydropower facility.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, such a move would wreak extensive destruction.
What do we know about the dam?
- 30 meters tall, two miles long
- Built-in 1956 as part of the hydro-electric plant
- A 18km3 reservoir – about equal to the Great Salt Lake in Utah, US
- Supplies water to a number of areas including the Crimean peninsula and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
What would happen if it was blown up?
Much of the Kherson region would be flooded.
Destroying the hydroelectric power plant would also add to Ukraine’s energy supply issues – the war has damaged a third of its national power network.
Mr Zelenskyy told the European Council on Thursday that destroying the dam would mean “a large-scale disaster”.
It would also show Russia had accepted it could not hold onto the region, he added.
Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said earlier in the week that Ukrainian forces were preparing a massive strike on the dam.
He agreed such a strike could be a disaster.
