Kakhovka HPP beyond repair after infrastructure destroyed - Novaya Kakhovka head

MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - The Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (HPP) is beyond repairs and would have to be built anew, Novaya Kakhovka head Vladimir Leontyev said.

"It's obvious that [repairs are] impossible. I think that, just like this HPP was built in the 1950s, it would have to be built anew after our victory," Leontyev said on the Rossiya-24 (VGTRK) television channel.

As Leontyev told journalists earlier in the day, the Kakhovka HPP's gate valves and other surface elements were destroyed as a result of overnight strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, causing water at the Kakhovka reservoir to be released uncontrollably downstream. Water levels are now rising, and the local authorities are preparing to partially evacuate 14 communities along the Dnieper River's banks.

The Kakhovka HPP has operated since the 1950s. It is designed to regulate the flow of the Dnieper for power supply, irrigation and water supply of the arid southern regions, and to provide navigation from Kherson to Zaporozhye. The North Crimean Canal links the reservoir and the Crimean Peninsula to supply it with water from the Dnieper. According to the latest data, the HPP is not generating electricity now.