Erdoğan Offers Zelenskyy to Set up Commission to Investigate Kakhovka Power Plant Explosion

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Türkiye, held a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, 7 June.

The presidents discussed the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.

According to the Office of the President of Türkiye, Erdoğan offered Zelenskyy to set up a commission involving "experts from the warring parties, the UN, and the international community including Türkiye" to conduct a "detailed investigation" into the explosion at the Kakhovka dam.

Erdoğan also promised to do everything within his powers with regard to helping Ukraine address the aftermath of the explosion, and proposed using the Black Sea Grain Initiative as a model for talks.

"Erdoğan said he would resolutely continue his efforts to establish a just peace, stressing that it will not be possible to prevent humanitarian losses each day the conflicts continue, so the idea of returning to negotiations should prevail" the Office of the President of Türkiye reported.

On the morning of 6 June, Ukraine’s Operational Command Pivden (South) reported that Russian occupation forces had blown up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP). The dam and the power plant's turbine hall were completely destroyed. The hydroelectric power plant is beyond repair. Preliminary forecasts indicate that the reservoir is expected to be drained within the next four days.

Skhemy, an investigative reporting project by Radio Liberty, published the first satellite image of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) that was destroyed by the occupiers.

The destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant caused an environmental catastrophe. The water from the reservoir has begun to flood towns and villages, and evacuations of local residents from dangerous areas have begun. The blowing up of the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant has caused problems with the water supply in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Marhanets and Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

One week before the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was blown up, Russia authorised the non-investigation of accidents at hazardous facilities that occurred because of "military operations" and terrorist attacks. 

Russia has accused Ukraine of blowing up the Kakhovka HPP. Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said Ukraine was not involved in the explosion.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the crime of ecocide with regard to the blowing up of the Kakhovka HPP.

The West was initially hesitant about who was responsible for the disaster, but both the US government and the media are now inclined to believe that Russia deliberately caused it. Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence has evidence that Russian occupation forces used explosives to blow up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.