Agriculture ministry warns of greater disaster next year, with global implications, from loss of Kakhovka reservoir
The fields of southern Ukraine could “turn into deserts” by next year, the country’s agrarian and food ministry warned after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, and the draining of its reservoir, which irrigated one of the world’s breadbaskets.
Officials say about 42,000 people are at immediate risk from flooding downstream of the dam, whose destruction on Tuesday morning has been blamed on Russia by Ukraine, the UN and other world leaders. Ukraine’s ministry of agrarian policy and food predicted an even greater disaster next year, with global implications, as a result of the loss of the Kakhovka reservoir, one of the largest in Europe, and its impact on some of Ukraine’s most fertile regions.
