Eight Russian cruise missiles hit the reservoir dam on Wednesday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, a native of Krivyi Rih, described Russia as a “terrorist state,” adding: "You are weaklings who fight civilians. Scoundrels who, having escaped from the battlefield, are trying to do harm from somewhere far away.”
The Ukrainian president stressed in his late night address on Wednesday that the dam had “no military value at all,” as cited by British broadcaster the BBC.
Zelensky wrote on social media that by striking hydrotechnic infrastructure, Russia was attempting “to sink Krivyi Rih,” the IAR news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official in Zelensky’s office, wrote on the Telegram messaging service that “on Wednesday night, 100 cubic metres of water were leaking from the dam every second.”
“This is a significant volume. And the water level in the Inhulets River changes every hour,” he added, as reported by nytimes.com.
Water supplies have been affected by the attack, according to officials.
Moreover, “about 600,000 people are now at risk of flooding in the centre and another district of the city,” Tymoshenko said, as reported by the BBC.
The official stated that emergency services were dealing with the effects of the strikes and the situation was “under control,” Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Inhulets is a strategic waterway that also flows through the southern Kherson region, where Ukrainian forces have been conducting a counter-offensive, IAR reported.
Thursday is day 204 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm)
Source: IAR, PAP, bbc.com, nytimes.com