FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference during a meeting of the European Political Community at Mimi Castle in Bulboaca, Moldova June 1, 2023. REUTERS/Vladislav Culiomza
(Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the bursting of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on Tuesday as "an environmental bomb of mass destruction" and said only liberating the entire country could guarantee against new "terrorist" acts.
"Such deliberate destruction by the Russian occupiers and other structures of the hydroelectric power station is an environmental bomb of mass destruction," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Zelenskiy said the destruction of the dam would "not stop Ukraine and Ukrainians. We will still liberate all our land.
"Only the complete liberation of Ukrainian land from the Russian occupiers will guarantee that there will be mo more such terrorist attacks."
In his remarks, Zelenskiy also said Ukrainian prosecutors had already approached prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague "to involve international justice in the investigation of the destruction of the dam".
And for the second day running, Zelenskiy singled out military units fighting in and near the long-besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, while giving no details of the clashes.
"Thank you! For moving forward!" he said.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Maria Starkova; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Berkrot)
