Environmental damage from Ukraine dam breach at $1.5 billion, says Kyiv

Kyiv said on Wednesday (June 21) that the the destruction of Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine earlier this month caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damages to the environment. Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame over the dam that was breached earlier this month in the Russian-held region, causing devastating floods in the Kherson area, forcing thousands to flee and sparking fears of an environmental disaster.

The hydroelectric dam was ripped open after a reported blast on the Kakhovka dam, which sits on the Dnipro River that feeds a reservoir providing cooling water for the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station.

At a reconstruction conference in London, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said: "Every day Russia is inflicting new losses on Ukraine." He said that the overall cost of Ukraine's reconstruction, estimated at $411 billion by the World Bank, "will grow, especially after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant".

He also added that the "preliminary estimates" of $1.5 billion in environmental damages following the dam breach do not include "losses to agriculture, infrastructure, housing, and the cost of rebuilding the plant itself".

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Ukraine: Now a reconstruction project

At the same conference in London, Ukraine urged the Western countries to pledge over $6 billion more to help it rebuild over the next 12 months. Shellings and strikes in Ukraine destroyed homes, hospitals and other critical infrastructure. The estimate shows that the ongoing war, which started last year in February, has put Ukraine in desperate need of the largest reconstruction project in Europe since World War Two.

The United States, Britain, the European Union and others have already pledged billions of dollars in additional help at the London conference, but Ukraine said it needed yet more capital.

Shmyhal said that the war-torn nation needs $6 billion over the next 12 months. He said, "We have set an ambitious goal of securing pledges for this amount as a result of this conference."

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak opened the conference with an appeal to businesses and governments to do more to help rebuild. He announced the London Conference Framework for War Risk Insurance as he addressed the key difficulty for most companies wanting to invest in Ukraine.

"Together with our allies we will maintain our support for Ukraine's defence and for the counteroffensive, and we'll stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes as they continue to win this war," Sunak told the conference.

(With inputs from agencies)

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