Bundestag members condemn Kakhovka HPP attack

The discussion took place on Wednesday, reports an Ukrinform correspondent.

Robin Wagener, an MP with the Union 90-Greens faction, called Russia's deliberate destruction of the dam "the worst man-made natural disaster that Europe has experienced in recent decades." Tens of thousands of people found themselves in the disaster zone, and on the left bank the occupiers also prevented evacuation. The water supply for 700,000 Ukrainians has been affected, the World Health Organization is warning of a cholera outbreak, and the decline in harvests will be felt in many parts of the world. Deliberate destruction of nature is nothing but ecocide," politician emphasized.

He also spoke in favor of rapid emergency aid to Ukraine and assistance in further reconstruction, as well as support on Ukraine's path to the EU. In addition, the perpetrators of this crime must be brought to justice, and Ukraine should receive even more weapons to win the war and liberate its territories. "Freezing the conflict will only increase the risk of similar terrorist attacks in the future," Wagener warned.

His fellow party member Jürgen Trittin called the attack yet another crime and reminded that this is Russia's first attack on hydroelectric structures. "We must put an end to the practice of them avoiding responsibility," he urged. What happened, the anticipated grain shortage, should be a signal to all those who say: ‘this is not our war.’”

"We condemn this way of waging war. It is clear to us that supporting Ukraine in this new dimension is more urgent than ever. We will continue to help Ukraine, including with weapons," promised the representative of the ruling Social Democratic Party Nils Schmid. He advocated making wartime ecocide a criminal offense under international criminal law, something that is not currently available so that it can be prosecuted specifically as a war crime. Schmid also emphasized the need to pay more attention to security around sensitive facilities such as nuclear power plants.

Derya Turk-Nachbaur, a member of the SPD, also spoke about the fact that the biggest artificial ecological disaster had happened and a cynical war crime had been committed in Ukraine. According to her, Putin is waging war not against the military, but rather against civilians, thus trying to inflict maximum damage and also to demoralize people. "This is a new dimension of psychological warfare," said lawmaker.

The representative of the Free Democratic Party, Agnes Strack-Zimmerman, called weaponizing water a tragedy. "This shows how brutally Putin is waging this war. He must be held accountable for this in The Hague," she said, expressing her belief that Putin, with his imperial ambitions and desire to destroy Ukraine and close its path to the West, "will not be able to prevent this even with the help of 80 billion liters of water."

Representatives of the opposition conservative CDU/CSU bloc also spoke about the need to continue and strengthen support for Ukraine, in particular, with weapons. Thus, Johann David Wadephul called the destruction of the dam a "crime against humanity", as well as a crime against flora and fauna. "To ensure that such disasters do not happen again, the German government must support Ukraine so quickly and so vigorously that they can win this war," Wadephul said. His fellow party member Knut Abraham noted that the fact that Russia’s resorting to such measures shows its weakness. "Russia acts as a terrorist state. This is a war crime, this is terror," he emphasized.

The leftists and the far-right "Alternative for Germany" parties on the one hand expressed sympathy for the victims, but once again insisted on ceasing arms supplies to Ukraine, which, they say, do not contribute to ending the war, but only lead to escalation. The leftists demand a ceasefire and negotiations, although they talk about "the crime of the regime for which there is no excuse", and the right-wing radicals "don't know" who is responsible for blowing up the dam.

It should be recalled that the Kakhovka HPP dam on the Dnipro in the south of Ukraine was destroyed by Russian troops on June 6.