Cork's Ukraine community to protest the destruction of Nova Kakhovka dam

Members of Cork’s Ukrainian community will hold a rally outside Bishop Lucey Park on the Grand Parade at 6pm on Monday to protest the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.

The dam, in the Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, was destroyed last week, unleashing a huge flood.

Ukraine and Nato have accused Russia of blowing up the dam, while Russia has claimed the attack was carried out by Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the destruction of the dam as an “environmental bomb of mass destruction”.

Thousands of people have been displaced by the flooding of low-lying areas on either side of the Dnipro river.

Officials have warned that the flooding will be likely to cause devastating and long-term consequences for the production of grain in a region which has traditionally been known as the breadbasket of Europe.

Experts have said unexploded munitions and mines may have been displaced by the floods and may now lie undetected in silt washed downstream.

Olesia Zhytkova, a postdoctoral researcher at Dublin City University’s Business School, is one of the organisers of Monday evening’s gathering, and she told The Echo that members of Cork’s Ukrainian community will gather outside Bishop Lucey Park at 6pm.

“We want to protest this war crime against the people of Ukraine and we want to highlight that people and animals have been killed in what is an ecocide against Ukraine and its neighbouring countries,” Ms Zhytkova said.

“We need to highlight what is being done to our homeland.

“Ukrainians are an agricultural people who have a special connection to the land, so this crime is really hitting home with us,” she said.

Ms Zhytkova said Cork people have been extremely welcoming and supportive of Ukrainian people since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last February, and she said she hoped Ukraine’s Leeside friends would attend Monday’s rally.