Kakhovka Dam Disaster: More Than a Year on Dnipro River is 'Actively Recovering' as Wildlife Returns in 'Large Numbers'
In June 2023, Mykhailo Mulenko walked along the banks of the Dnipro River, watching as the rapidly receding water exposed the river's riparian zones, condemning vast numbers of fish, mollusks, and aquatic plants to death under the sun's heat.
An explosion had collapsed the Russian-occupied Kakhovka Dam, 180kms downstream, on 6 June. Within days, the river's depth in Zaporizhzhia had dropped by around four meters, where 40-year-old Mulenko works as the Head of Nature Protection at the Khortytsia National Reserve.
"This territory is one of the most important points on the transnational bird migration route," he explained at the time.
"When birds fly from north to south, they stop exactly at these territories; here at Khortytsia, and downstream in the Kakhovka reservoir, there are valuable wetlands where they could nest, fatten their young and fly on. Now this area is completely lost as an object of the emerald network of Kakhovka Reservoir."
The destruction of the dam, almost universally attributed to occupying Russian forces, destroyed the hydroelectric plant and released 18 million cubic meters worth of water onto 80 unsuspecting villages and towns downstream.
The 2,155 square kilometre reservoir drained, killing at least 59 people and an unknown amount of wildlife in the largest environmental catastrophe of the war so far. The Ukrainian Government quickly deemed it an act of Russian ecocide.
Dead fish that were unable to escape into deeper water rotted on the banks of the Dnipro and attached inlets, putting severe stress on delicate ecosystems, some of which are protected as a part of the European Council's Emerald Network.
Related reading: The Nova Kakhovka Dam Destruction will have a Global Ecological Impact
Now, more than a year since the initial disaster, researchers and biologists like Mulenko have been able to better assess the extent of the ecological consequences. Despite the initial toll on humans and the environment remaining extreme, some encouraging signs have been observed in the river ecology of the former Kakhovka Reservoir.
As Russia's war on Ukraine continues to devastate the environment, these developments are inspiring a cautious optimism that, in some cases, nature will be able to overcome the brutal damages of the war.
"At the beginning, we saw bare shores and dried-up lakes, and we didn't know how this area would develop in the future. Whether it would turn into a desert or become overgrown with weeds - no one could imagine what would actually happen," Mulenko explained during a recent visit to Zaporizhzhia.
"Now, we see that this area is actively recovering, not just through the development of vegetation. Wildlife is also returning to this area in large numbers: deer, wild boars, and a significant number of waterfowl and shorebirds."
Related reading: 'We Rescue People and Animals, and We get Them to Safety': Saving Lives in Kherson Under Russian fire
The Kakhovka Reservoir was formed after the construction of the dam and hydroelectric plant of the same name between 1950 and 1956 as the last in a series of six hydroelectric dams built by the Soviet Union along the Dnipro River.
Used to generate electricity, provide drinking and agricultural water, supply the cooling ponds for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, as well as important canals such as the Northern Crimean Canal, the massive reservoir was not without its faults.
Loss of local biodiversity, a declining fish population, and large amounts of pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff also characterised the reservoir. Various indigenous species of fish were blocked by the dam from migrating upstream to spawn, a problem common to hydroelectric dams globally.
Additionally, the prevalence of industrial and agricultural pollution in the reservoir initially sparked concerns that the bed of the former reservoir could dry up into a desert, creating the opportunity for sandstorms to
An explosion had collapsed the Russian-occupied Kakhovka Dam, 180kms downstream, on 6 June. Within days, the river's depth in Zaporizhzhia had dropped by around four meters, where 40-year-old Mulenko works as the Head of Nature Protection at the Khortytsia National Reserve.
"This territory is one of the most important points on the transnational bird migration route," he explained at the time.
"When birds fly from north to south, they stop exactly at these territories; here at Khortytsia, and downstream in the Kakhovka reservoir, there are valuable wetlands where they could nest, fatten their young and fly on. Now this area is completely lost as an object of the emerald network of Kakhovka Reservoir."
The destruction of the dam, almost universally attributed to occupying Russian forces, destroyed the hydroelectric plant and released 18 million cubic meters worth of water onto 80 unsuspecting villages and towns downstream.
The 2,155 square kilometre reservoir drained, killing at least 59 people and an unknown amount of wildlife in the largest environmental catastrophe of the war so far. The Ukrainian Government quickly deemed it an act of Russian ecocide.
Dead fish that were unable to escape into deeper water rotted on the banks of the Dnipro and attached inlets, putting severe stress on delicate ecosystems, some of which are protected as a part of the European Council's Emerald Network.
Related reading: The Nova Kakhovka Dam Destruction will have a Global Ecological Impact
Now, more than a year since the initial disaster, researchers and biologists like Mulenko have been able to better assess the extent of the ecological consequences. Despite the initial toll on humans and the environment remaining extreme, some encouraging signs have been observed in the river ecology of the former Kakhovka Reservoir.
As Russia's war on Ukraine continues to devastate the environment, these developments are inspiring a cautious optimism that, in some cases, nature will be able to overcome the brutal damages of the war.
"At the beginning, we saw bare shores and dried-up lakes, and we didn't know how this area would develop in the future. Whether it would turn into a desert or become overgrown with weeds - no one could imagine what would actually happen," Mulenko explained during a recent visit to Zaporizhzhia.
"Now, we see that this area is actively recovering, not just through the development of vegetation. Wildlife is also returning to this area in large numbers: deer, wild boars, and a significant number of waterfowl and shorebirds."
Related reading: 'We Rescue People and Animals, and We get Them to Safety': Saving Lives in Kherson Under Russian fire
The Kakhovka Reservoir was formed after the construction of the dam and hydroelectric plant of the same name between 1950 and 1956 as the last in a series of six hydroelectric dams built by the Soviet Union along the Dnipro River.
Used to generate electricity, provide drinking and agricultural water, supply the cooling ponds for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, as well as important canals such as the Northern Crimean Canal, the massive reservoir was not without its faults.
Loss of local biodiversity, a declining fish population, and large amounts of pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff also characterised the reservoir. Various indigenous species of fish were blocked by the dam from migrating upstream to spawn, a problem common to hydroelectric dams globally.
Additionally, the prevalence of industrial and agricultural pollution in the reservoir initially sparked concerns that the bed of the former reservoir could dry up into a desert, creating the opportunity for sandstorms to
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