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Statement on the attack on Kakhovka Water Dam

L'Internationale Confederation
 

L’Internationale confederation is deeply appalled by the news of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Dam controlled by russian forces on 6 June, 2023. We strongly condemn the vicious attack on critical infrastructure that will cause irreversible damage, threatening to flood areas downstream along the Dnipro river and creating a human and environmental disaster that will devastate populated settlements and ecosystems in Southern Ukraine.

The destruction will result in the displacement of thousands of people, impacting the global food crisis and affecting access to drinking water in multiple cities. This act of environmental terrorism may also have terrible consequences for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which relies on the Kakhovka reservoir to access cooling water. The destruction of the dam is another infrastructural, ecological and epidemiological war crime. It is a deadly escalation of the russian attack on Ukraine by deploying ecocide and pollution as weapons alongside traditional instruments of war.

As Svitlana Matviyenko argues in her article "Pollution as a Weapon of War", the russian war machine uses ecocidal mechanisms as war tactics, discarding poisonous heavy metals that enter the groundwater and turn Ukrainian land into minefields; emitting huge amounts of carbon pollution into the air; destroying the biodiversity of fauna and flora on the territory of Ukraine; and putting occupied cities at risk of cholera epidemic.

We condemn this most recent human and ecological disaster. We ask friends and colleagues to join us in calling for a process of international investigation that immediately includes funds for the reconstruction of the region. We remain deeply worried about the ongoing escalation and see each day of war as an irreversible catastrophe. L’Internationale confederation again urges those who can to donate to the relief efforts. Please find a list of recommended organizations below.

View of the maritim distric of Kherson flooded after destruction of the Nova Kakovka Dam controlled by russian forces. Photo: Albert Lores.

VOSTOK SOS
Fundraiser for: helping evacuate people with limited mobility and families with children and pets
PayPal: info@vostok-sos.org
Donate here: vostok-sos.org

Kyiv Animal Rescue Group
Fundraiser for: evacuating animals
PayPal: karg.paypal@gmail.com
Donate here: karg.kiev.ua

Ukrainian FireFighters Foundation
Fundraiser for: additional motorized pumps for the Kherson Emergency Service
PayPal: bimbirayte@gmail.com
Donate here: firefighters.com.ua

Rescue Now UA
Fundraiser for: helping the locals
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=WYLAFCJ7PHG2Y
Donate here: rescuenow.com.ua

Helping To Leave
Fundraiser for: immediate evacuation
Donate here: buy.stripe.com

Bogdan Logvynenko, Ukrainian Founder
Fundraiser for: helping evacuate people
Donate here: https://send.monobank.ua/jar/8E7RWMjKaM
Or here: quicknote.io

UNITED24
Fundraiser for: rescue vessels, motor pumps, flashlights, diving suits, portable water filtration stations, underwater drones for identifying explosives, and rescue equipment
Donate here: u24.gov.ua

The views and opinions published here mirror the principles of academic freedom and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the L'Internationale confederation and its members.

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