Environmental activist Greta Thunberg is demanding that Russia be "held accountable" for the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, which she described as an ecocide.
The Soviet-era hydroelectric power plant, along the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, suffered a breach in the early morning hours Tuesday. While the cause of the disaster is still unknown, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused "Russian terrorists" of deliberately destroying the dam, while Moscow quickly blamed Kyiv of sabotage.
The impact of the rupture is being felt by thousands of residents in both Russian- and Ukraine-controlled territories near the plant. According to a Wednesday report from the Associated Press (AP), about 3,000 people had been evacuated from areas on both sides of the Dnieper. Ukraine is in control of the river's western bank near the city of Kherson, while Russia occupies the western side.
"This ecocide as a continuation of Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine is yet another atrocity, which leaves the world lost for words," Thunberg tweeted on Thursday, responding to a video posted by the government of Ukraine that captures an aerial view of rushing water pouring through the broken barriers of the dam.
"Our eyes are once again on Russia, who must be held accountable for their crimes," the activist, age 20, added.
The Kakhovka dam had served as Ukraine's largest water reservoir, and its destruction could leave thousands without access to clean drinking water for an unknown period. The breach has also wreaked havoc on the surrounding wildlife, and Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Oleksandra Krasnolutskyi has deemed it "the biggest ecocide in Ukraine since the beginning of [Russia's] full-scale invasion."
Zelensky, who responded to Thunberg's tweet Thursday, thanked the Swedish environmental activist "for your position and for upholding the truth."
"[Russia] must be held accountable for all its evil against people, life and nature!" he added.
Prior to the dam's destruction, Russia had already been accused of causing nearly $35 billion in environmental damage since launching its invasion in February 2022. Ukrainian Defense Ministry Oleksii Reznikov claimed in January that the devastation caused by Russia had put the country in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which state that "Care shall be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage."
Kyiv has also demanded that Russia pay billions of dollars in reparations over the "terrorist attack" involving destruction of the dam. Earlier this week, Oleg Ustenko, economic adviser to Zelensky, told Newsweek that the plant's breach "will have many negative effects: the environment will suffer, people will lose their homes and our energy infrastructure will suffer."
"Russia has to be stopped with all possible means including heavy sanctions," Ustenko added. "Ukraine must also be compensated for all the damage caused by Russia—down to the very last penny."
Russia has maintained, however, that Kyiv is to blame for the dam's destruction. In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the incident "a terrorist act directed against the infrastructure of a purely civilian purpose."
"It was planned in advance and purposefully by the Kyiv regime for military purposes as part of the so-called 'counteroffensive' of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the ministry added.
On Thursday, Russian media sources claimed that Ukraine had finally launched its counteroffensive in the direction of the Zaporizhzhia region. Newsweek previously reached out to the Ukrainian defense ministry for more information.
