Agri-sector may lose up to $1.5B due to Kakhovka HPP's explosion - Agrarian Ministry

First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Taras Vysotsky announced this on the air of United News telethon", Ukrinform reports.

"Speaking about the damage caused by the Kakhovka HPP's explosion, we need to distinguish two areas. The first one is flooding and direct damage incurred today," he said.

In this context, Vysotsky informed that 10,000 hectares of agricultural land were flooded on the right bank of Dnipro River.

At the same time, according to him, tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land have been damaged on the left bank, according to modeling and satellite imagery.

"The second block, which is also very important, concerns the fact that water was actually supplied from the Kakhovka reservoir to provide irrigation for about 600,000 hectares of land," he added.

Vysotsky explained that there is no direct damage from flooding on these lands, but without water supply, it will not be possible to grow products.

"About 4 million tonnes of agricultural products were grown on these lands. These volumes will be impossible and unavailable for cultivation," the first deputy minister said.

He noted that up to USD 1.5 billion worth of products were grown there.

Vysotsky added that the fishing industry will also suffer significant losses.

"It is preliminarily estimated that the losses of aquaculture and the fishing industry amount to more than UAH 10 billion," he said.

We are talking about direct losses due to the fish kill and the destruction of fish hatcheries.

In his opinion, it will be impossible to quickly restore the losses. In the coming years it will be impossible to catch fish in the volumes that were available before the Kakhovka HPP was blown up.

Vysotsky assured that all losses are being recorded and that "we will definitely take steps to compensate for these losses".

As Ukrinform reported, on the night of June 6, Russian army blew up the dam of the Kakhovka HPP. Rescue and evacuation efforts continue in Kherson region. The situation remains particularly dramatic in the temporarily occupied territories, where Russian invaders have left civilians without any help. Access to these people for Ukrainian rescue services is extremely difficult or impossible.

Law enforcement officers have opened an investigation into the occupiers' explosion of the Kakhovka HPP for ecocide.

Ukrhydroenergo stated that Kakhovka HPP was completely destroyed and cannot be restored.