LVIV (OSV News): Pope Francis’ peace envoy to Ukraine, Matteo Cardinal Zuppi, was finishing his two-day visit to Ukraine on June 6. He met with president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as news broke of the destruction of the critical Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant along the front lines in southern Ukraine on the Dnipro River. The Russian side accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up the dam. Ukraine accused Russians of committing what it called “ecocide.”
Thousands of people are at risk from flood waters released from dam, only 32 kilometres from southeastern Ukraine city of Kherson, with Red Cross volunteers already prepared for evacuation trains carrying people whose towns are or will soon be underwater.
Nova Kakhovka town, which is closest to the dam, was already completely flooded by June 6. Water from the damaged dam may see the flooding of coastal towns and cities. It may start an unprecedented ecological disaster in the region.
The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, called on the world community to condemn Russia’s actions in Kakhovka and for allegedly blowing up the plant.
“The explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam has put thousands of people in mortal danger, which is only growing,” he said.
