Ukraine’s UN envoy urges UN, international organizations to help after Kakhovka dam breach

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya urged the international community to condemn the Russian destruction of the Kakhovka dam at the June 6 UN Security Council meeting.

He also asked international organizations to help local residents affected by flooding in the statement.

“We urge the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to send humanitarian missions to the left bank of the Dnipro River to help local residents affected by the flooding,” Kyslytsya said.

Kyslytsya called the attack “the largest man-made disaster in Europe in decades” presenting flooding risks to over 80 settlements.

“By resorting to scorched-earth tactics, or in this case to flooded-earth tactics, the Russian occupiers have effectively recognized that the captured territory does not belong to them, and they are not able to hold these lands,” Kyslytsya said.

Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya assigned the responsibility for the dam's destruction to Ukraine in a statement during the same meeting.

Asking for condemnation of the Russian actions, Kyslytsya called the Russian statement deceitful and referenced Russia's previous track record of denying responsibility for war crimes in Ukraine.