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Russia Targets Strategic Pechenihy Dam—Ukraine Responds with Contingency Measures
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Russian forces struck the Pechenihy dam in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, damaging an important piece of infrastructure and forcing authorities to suspend traffic across the structure, Suspilne reported on December 7.
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Local officials said the dam at the Pechenihy reservoir was hit by a single missile around midday, with no casualties reported as specialists began assessing the extent of the damage.
In response, Ukraine’s 16th Army Corps said the military had long anticipated the risk of Russian attacks on the dam and had prepared contingency plans in advance. These include alternative logistics routes and pre-positioned supplies to ensure continued operations.
The corps said a temporary loss of movement across the dam would not have a critical impact on combat activities, noting that backup routes have been used before and remain fully functional.
Ukrainian military officials said the Pechenihy dam has been under sustained Russian attack, including attempts using Shahed drones, guided aerial bombs, missiles, Molniya drones, and FPV drones, with several strikes recorded in recent days alone, according to Suspilne.
The Pechenihy dam, located in the Chuhuiv district, played a crucial role during the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, serving as a main evacuation route for civilians fleeing temporarily occupied areas. It has been damaged multiple times since then during Russian strikes on critical infrastructure.
Previously, it was reported that the protective steel confinement structure at Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant, built to contain radioactive material from the 1986 disaster, can no longer perform its main safety function after damage from a drone strike in February, according to Reuters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that an inspection last week of the New Safe Confinement, a steel arch completed in 2019 over the ruined fourth reactor, revealed that the February impact had degraded the structure to the point where it had lost key safety functions, including its ability to confine radioactive materials.
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