TEHRAN -- Iran on Thursday expressed opposition to the war in Ukraine and called for identifying the main cause and perpetrators of the destruction of a dam in the country’s Kherson region.
In a tweet, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani reiterated Tehran’s opposition to the war in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and threatening the lives of civilians.
He called on both sides to adhere to internationally recognized principles and urged them to find out the main cause and perpetrators of the destruction of the dam.
Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the bursting of the Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which sent waters cascading across the war zone of southern Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands to flee.
Russia said Ukraine deliberately destroyed the dam using massive artillery strikes.
Kiev claimed Moscow was behind the burst.
Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Alexander Shulgin, has said Kiev deliberately raised the water level at the reservoir to a critical point before conducting the attack.
The Russian-held Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River burst on Tuesday, triggering floods that inundated the entire region and prompted the evacuation of thousands of people from areas controlled by Russia and Ukraine.
A total of 600 square kilometers of the Kherson region is underwater, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on social media.