Families of those killed in Russiaʼs Kakhovka HPP blast file complaint with UN Human Rights Committee

The families of nine people who died as a result of the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant (HPP) by Russian troops on June 6, 2023, filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee.

The appeal on behalf of the families was prepared by the human rights organizations Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) and Truth Hounds. This is stated in the organizationsʼ press release, the text of which is available to Babel.

Human rights activists claim that Russia violated the right to life not only of the nine claimed victims, but also of all the people who died as a result of the disaster.

“No one warned them, and when the water came, no one came to save them,” said Victoria, who lost three family members in the flooding and is now seeking justice and reparations from the Russian Federation, along with other affected families.

According to Ukrainian and Russian authorities, at least 92 people died in the dam collapse. At the same time, journalistic investigations indicate that there may be hundreds of victims in occupied Oleshky alone.

The final death toll is still unknown due to the Russian occupation of parts of the affected territories. The ongoing occupation also makes it difficult to collect testimonies and evidence, which has affected the familiesʼ ability to seek legal redress.

LAW stated that the positive decision of the UN Committee in favor of the families of the deceased could become a historical precedent and expand the application of international law to protect civilians during military conflicts — both in Ukraine and around the world.

In addition to human casualties, the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP caused the flooding of dozens of settlements, large-scale environmental damage, and created risks for the operation of the cooling system of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

The Truth Hounds report also indicates that the Russians not only failed to ensure proper evacuation of people in the occupied left bank of the Kherson region, but also hindered rescue efforts. Witnesses spoke of shelling of evacuation areas, confiscation of private boats, and blocking volunteersʼ access to flooded settlements.

Such actions by the occupiers may qualify as serious violations of international humanitarian law. However, human rights activists emphasize that despite the scale of the disaster, mechanisms for holding those responsible accountable are limited.

In 2024, LAW and Truth Hounds filed a similar complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee regarding Russiaʼs missile strike on Vinnytsia in July 2022, which killed 28 civilians.

The Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was blown up.

On the night of June 6, 2023, Russia blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region, the fifth largest in Ukraine. The hydroelectric power station has been under occupation since the start of the full-scale war, and in October 2022, Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the Russians had mined it.

Ukrhydroenergo stated that the hydroelectric power station was completely destroyed and it is impossible to restore it. And to rebuild the hydroelectric power station, no less than a billion dollars are needed. The UN believes that the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station caused Ukraine losses of $14 billion.

In July, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that 31 Ukrainians died due to the explosion of a dam in Kyiv-controlled territory.

An Associated Press investigation shows that Russian occupation authorities in the occupied territory of Kherson region significantly and intentionally underestimated the number of victims of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant explosion.

Russia controlled the issuance of death certificates and confiscated bodies that were not claimed by relatives, and also threatened medics and volunteers for disclosing “unnecessary” information.

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