BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam was in line with Russia’s escalating violence in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy of attacking civilian targets.
“For this reason, this is something that has a new dimension but which fits with the way in which Putin wages this war,” said Scholz in an interview with broadcaster WDR.
This makes it all the more important that Germany continues to support Ukraine for as long as necessary, he added.
Scholz also said Germany was watching the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with concern following the destruction of the dam, which supplies water to the plant.
“All we can say about Zaporizhzhia is that we are monitoring this all the time,” Scholz said.
Ukrainian and Russian forces have blamed each other for the breach, which unleashed millions of litres of water, threatening scores of villages and cutting off water supplies.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Twitter it was closely monitoring the situation but that there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk at (the) plant” which is also in southern Ukraine.
(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Rachel More, editing by Ed Osmond)
