Kakhovka Reservoir

Kakhovka Reservoir [Каховське водосховище; Kakhovske vodoshovyshche]. A huge water reservoir created in 1956 after the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station was built on the lower Dnipro River. It was 240 km long and up to 23 km wide and had a surface area of 2,155 sq km, a volume of 18.2 cu km, and an average depth of 8.4 m. Its level varied from 3 to 26 m. Its waters supplied hydroelectric stations, the Krasnoznamianka Irrigation System and the Kakhovka Irrigation System, industrial plants, freshwater-fish farms, the North Crimean Canal and the Dnipro-Kryvyi Rih Canal. The reservoir created a deep-water route, allowing sea ships to sail up the Dnipro River. The Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 from the Russian-occupied Crimea resulted initially in the occupation of Kherson oblast. However, Ukrainian counteroffensive liberated the right bank of the Dnipro in November 2022 and the Armed Forces of Ukraine freed the city of Kherson. In order to prevent the Ukrainian forces’s advance across the Dnipro River, on 6 June 2023 the Russian army blew up the Kakhovka dam, causing the drainage of the Kakhovka Reservoir, which resulted in massive loss of lives downriver and damage to infrastructure, water supply, and the environment.

[This article was updated in 2025.]