Ukraine’s Kherson to Face Significant Vegetable Harvest Loss – Russian-Backed Official

MOSCOW (Reuters) – According to the TASS news agency, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor, stated that Ukraine’s Kherson region will suffer considerable losses in its vegetable harvest due to insufficient water in the North Crimean and Kakhovka canals.

In June, the Kakhovka dam, a large Soviet-era dam situated on the Dnipro River separating Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, experienced a breach.

This breach not only led to floodwaters across a vast area in southern Ukraine but also drained a significant reservoir that had been a crucial water source for households and agriculture in the region.

Saldo’s remarks seem to refer to the southern part of the Kherson region that Russia controls, located south of the Dnipro River. The North Crimean Canal and its branch, the Kakhovka Canal, extend south and southeast from the reservoir’s mouth.

He mentioned that both canals are now “waterless.”

“As a result, the harvest will be lost,” he informed the Rossiya 24 state television news channel, as cited by TASS.

Saldo further stated that the water scarcity will primarily impact the production of vegetable crops.

Andrey Alekseyenko, the chairman of the regional government, previously disclosed that nearly 250,000 hectares (620,000 acres) of irrigated farmland, cultivating water-intensive crops like corn, soybeans, and rice, have been left without water, according to TASS.

The Kherson region is famed in Ukraine for its fruits and vegetables, while in 2021, the country’s agriculture ministry reported a grain production exceeding 3.3 million metric tons.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mike Harrison)