# Destruction of Ukraine dam caused ‘toxic timebomb’ of heavy metals, study finds

Researchers say environmental impact from Kakhovka dam explosion comparable to Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

## By Ajit Niranjan
**Europe environment correspondent**  
Thu 13 Mar 2025 14:00 EDT

The destruction of a large Ukrainian dam in 2023 triggered a “toxic timebomb” of environmental harm, a  has found.

Lakebed sediments holding 83,000 tonnes of heavy metals were exposed when the  one year into Russia’s invasion, researchers found.

Less than 1% of these “highly toxic” heavy metals – which include lead, cadmium and nickel – are likely to have been released when the reservoir drained, the scientists found. They said the remaining pollutants would leach into rivers as rains wore down the sediment, threatening human health in a region where river water is widely used to make up for shortages in municipal water supplies.

The lead author, Oleksandra Shumilova, said the scale of the environmental impacts was comparable to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

“All these pollutants that were deposited on the bottom can accumulate in different organisms, pass through the food web, and spread from vegetation to animals to humans,” said Shumilova, a scientist at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries. “Its consequences can be compared to the effects of radiation.”

The researchers linked on-the-ground measurements with remote sensing data and hydrology models to map the environmental impacts of the dam’s destruction, which flooded the region and killed 84 people. They estimated water from the breach killed 20-30% of floodplain rodents, along with the entire juvenile fish stock.

They said the reservoir released 9,000-17,000 tonnes of phytoplankton each day in the first week after the dam was blown up, driving an increase in water turbidity that led to the “probable loss” of 10,000 tonnes of macroinvertebrates.

The destruction of natural life detailed in the study appears to contrast with the  of wildlife that has returned to the reservoir since the dam burst. White willows and black poplars have reforested the land, and wild boars and other animals have taken over areas that people still avoid. Fish that have not been seen for decades, such as sturgeon and herring, have returned to the water.

The researchers expect that the area will reach a level of biodiversity equivalent to 80% of an undammed ecosystem within five years.

“It’s not recovery, it’s better to use a word such as re-establish,” said Shumilova. “It means that it will develop its own way, but not necessarily to the initial conditions.”

The Kakhovka dam, which was built in the 1950s on the Dnipro River, was destroyed on 6 June 2023 while under Russian occupation. Its reservoir supplied water to cool the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and irrigate southern .

## Related: Life returns to Ukrainian reservoir drained by Russian strike on dam

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