'Crazy' Putin Sacrificed Crimea by Blowing up Dam—Ukraine Mayor

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sacrificed the lives and future well-being of residents living in annexed-Crimea by destroying the Nova Kakhovka dam, Ukrainian officials told Newsweek. Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the occupied southern city of Melitopol, said that the Russian leader was "crazy."

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the damage to the critical Soviet-era dam in southern Ukraine on the Dnieper river. It was breached in the early hours of Tuesday morning, unleashing water on swaths of territory ahead of a looming counteroffensive from Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the situation as "an environmental bomb of mass destruction" that has left hundreds of thousands of people without normal access to drinking water. Thousands have been ordered to evacuate from the partially occupied Kherson region amid rising water levels.

The dam's collapse could also have a devastating impact on Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Putin illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Soviet-era North Crimean Canal, which has traditionally delivered 85 percent of water to Crimea, takes water from the now-destroyed Nova Kakhovka reservoir.

Most of the water from the North Crimean Canal is used for farming or industry, but about a fifth is used for drinking water, meeting most of the peninsula's needs.

Vladimir Leontyev, the Russian-installed head of the Kherson region, has raised concerns over the "supply of water to Crimea." The peninsula's occupation governor Sergey Aksyonov says Crimea has sufficient water volume in its reservoirs.

Fedorov, the mayor of the city of Melitopol in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, told Newsweek there will likely be water-supply issues in Crimea for years because of the dam's destruction.

"We will have great problems with water—drinking water in Crimea—because the water supply infrastructure needs the Dnieper river," Fedorov said.

"After damaging the Kakhovka [dam], all its infrastructure has been destroyed. It's now impossible to deliver any water to Crimea. That's why, of course, I understand that for many years, Crimea will be without water. We will have such a problem on our temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia region because many cities and villages take water from the river."

Melitopol, which had a pre-war population of 150,000, was among the first regions to fall to Russian forces after the full-scale invasion began last February. Fedorov was captured and detained by Russian special services in March 2022 for six days until he was freed in a prisoner exchange.

The mayor said Putin was responsible for the dam's destruction, knowing it would have such a devastating impact on Crimea.

"Putin doesn't think. He's crazy. When you speak about it, you think about citizens and about people. But Putin never thinks about citizens. He thinks only about himself and only about politics and ratings. That's why Putin is crazy," said Fedorov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has accused Ukraine of what he characterized as an act of sabotage, saying that the dam's destruction could affect Crimea's water supplies. Peskov added that Ukraine's aim was to deprive Crimea of water and the North Crimean Canal was already receiving dramatically less water.

"Crimea may be left without water—some Ukrainian authorities say—for years," Elina Beketova told Newsweek. She is an in-residence fellow with the Democracy Fellowship program at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, DC.

"Even though there are water reserves, we might see that Crimea will face problems with drinking water," Beketova said.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, said the dam's collapse shows how willing Putin is willing to sacrifice the lives of both Ukrainian and Russian civilians.

"First of all, this is a signal that Russia uses 'scorched earth' tactics. Russian authorities are not able to calculate the consequences of their actions, but they most definitely do not care about the life and future well-being of their civilians," Gerashchenko told Newsweek.

"Not just Ukrainians, their own population, too. So the aftereffects of the catastrophe for Crimea are yet another confirmation that the Kremlin doesn't care for people at all, and they are ready to sacrifice anyone."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via worldnews@newsweek.com.