SBU exposes Russian general involved in Kakhovka HPP explosion

The SBU has identified and collected evidence against a high-ranking Russian official who organized the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in the occupied part of the left bank of Kherson region.

This was reported by the SBU.

It is Russian Major General Volodymyr Omelyanovych, Chief of Staff and First Deputy Commander of the 'Dnipro' group of the aggressor country's armed forces. It is he who is suspected of directly coordinating the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.

According to the investigation, on the night of June 5-6, 2023, Omelianovych coordinated the actions of his subordinates to destroy the dam by mine blasting on the temporarily occupied left bank of the Kherson region.

The destruction of the hydroelectric structure caused a catastrophic water spill that killed 35 civilians and left another 24 residents of the region missing.

Due to the rapid spread of large volumes of water, 46 settlements and 1,323 hectares of agricultural land in the Kherson region, including 14 communities in the occupied territory, were flooded. In addition to the humanitarian losses, the dam's explosion made it impossible to supply water to Kherson, Mykolaiv, Dnipro regions and the temporarily occupied Crimea. The uncontrolled water spill also flooded 55,000 hectares of forest and at least 81,000 hectares of nature reserves.

A separate threat was the disruption of the cooling system at Zaporizhzhia NPP. Based on the evidence collected, SBU investigators served Omelyanovych a notice of suspicion in absence for war crimes combined with premeditated murder committed by a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Comprehensive measures aimed at bringing to justice all perpetrators of crimes against Ukraine are ongoing.

Катерина Глушко