The Security Service of Ukraine has collected evidence against a high-ranking russian military official involved in organizing the blowing up of Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant on the temporarily occupied left bank of Kherson region.

This is russian major general Vladimir Omelianovich, chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Dnepr group of the russian armed forces.

As the investigation established, on the night of 6 June 2023 he directly coordinated the actions of his subordinates to destroy the Kakhovka HPP dam using explosives.

The destruction of the hydraulic structure resulted in a catastrophic flood, which led to the death of 35 civilians; another 24 residents of the region went missing.

The rapid spread of large volumes of water flooded 46 settlements and 1,323 hectares of agricultural land in Kherson region. These include 14 communities affected in the temporarily occupied territory.

The dam breach made it impossible to supply water to Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions and the temporarily occupied Crimea.

The uncontrolled spill of water flooded 55,000 hectares of forest and at least 81,000 hectares of nature reserves and industrial facilities in southern Ukraine.

It also posed a threat to the technical maintenance of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant due to the disruption of the plant’s cooling system.

Based on the evidence, investigators of the Security Service notified Omelianovich in absentia of suspicion under Articles 28.2 and 438.2 of the CCU (war crimes combined with intentional murder, committed by a group, upon prior conspiracy).

Efforts to bring all ruscist culprits to justice for crimes against Ukraine are underway.

The investigation was conducted under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.