No, video doesn't show water release from Dnipro dam after Nova Kakhovka dam breach

By: Rahul Adhikari
June 13 2023

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Context

A flood engulfed towns and villages in southern Ukraine after the Nova Kakhovka Dam in the Russia-controlled region was blown up on June 6. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the nearby areas of the Dnipro River, and rescue operations are still underway. The devastating flood in southern Ukraine has resulted in the death of at least 10 people, with 41 still missing, Euronews reported.

A video has surfaced on social media claiming that the floodgates of the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant have been opened, worsening the flood situation. The video shows a huge amount of water flowing out through the gates of a dam. A user shared the video on Twitter with the caption, “Apparently, the floodgates of the DneproHPP Dam have been opened, exacerbating the flooding downstream in the Kherson region of Ukraine.” Several other Twitter users shared the video claiming that all the water is moving in a huge stream to the Kherson region and that the Ukrainian government is trying to purposefully drown their own citizens.

However, the claim is false. An old video of floodwater gushing out of the Dnipro dam was falsely shared. There is no evidence that the floodgates of the dam have been opened now. 

In Fact

We found that Ukrainian media organization Suspilne included the viral video in one of their news reports dated April 24, 2023. The report suggests that the video was captured after the water level had risen in the Dnipro River, flooding neighboring areas. A part of the description of the video, originally in Ukrainian, read, "In Zaporizhzhia, due to the rise in the water level in the Dnieper, the coast and part of the beach areas were flooded...."

The video was also shared by the Instagram account of the Kyiv outlet of the media website Insider on April 19, 2023. The caption, originally in Ukrainian, suggested that the viral video was captured during the spring flood in April. Translated to English, the caption read, “A red level of danger has been declared in a number of regions of Ukraine due to spring flooding. According to forecasts, the peak of the flood will fall on the period from April 18 to 28. Red and orange levels of danger have been declared in some areas."

A seasonal rise in water levels in Ukrainian rivers caused a flood in April 2022. According to a report by Floodlist, the floods impacted hundreds of households, and the State Emergency Service evacuated people from the flooded areas. The floods affected eight regions of Ukraine - Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Rivne, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr. 

The video was also published on a YouTube channel named "Zvorsky YouTube" on April 19, 2023. The title of the video, written in Ukrainian and translated to English, read "Technological discharge of water through the dam of the Dnepropetrovsk Hydroelectric Station - Bolshaya Voda in Ukraine." 

Based on these sources, it can be concluded that the viral video was captured at the Dnipro Dam during flooding in Ukraine in April, and it is unrelated to the recent collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam. 

The Verdict

A video from April 2023 of floodwater gushing out of the Dnipro dam in Ukraine has been shared with claims that it was filmed after the recent destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Dam. The floodgates of the Dnipro Dam have not been opened after the dam collapse in the Kherson region. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.