now there is enough water in the cooling pools, but russian occupation of the plant means nothing is safe. there is no immediate threat really in that. and the level is normal. this is my biggest concern. reporter: kyiv is pointing the finger directly at moscow. russia s deliberate and long planned terrorist act turned the man made flood into a weapon. reporter: and denying responsibility, then accusing ukraine. the catastrophic situation unfolding as ukraine preps its long awaited counteroffensive. and overnight, president zelenskyy saying the dam detonation does not hinder their plans to deoccupy ukrainian territories. the water levels are still rising. ukrainian officials say they expect over the next day that water to rise about three feet and then stay at that level for the next four or five days. that makes water rescues and any kind of evacuation to higher ground really, really
it has been at risk various times during shelling. we know that they need cooling water for the nuclear rods, the spent fuel. reporter: that s right. and actually just in the last hour, i wrapped an interview with the head of the state nuclear energy company here and i asked him just that, to run a nuclear power plant, you need water and power and both were coming from the reservoir attached to this dam. he says right now he is not in kind of a full-scale 24 hour panic because all six of those reactors are currently off. an as we know, zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, europe s biggest nuclear power plant, is controlled by russia. so he says there is a real uncertainty what they may do. at the moment all six reactors are off and that means that the water levels in the cooling pools are adequate and he says as long as there is not additional power being required, as long as there is not additional water being required and those six reactors stay off,
key of cooling water. molly hunter joins us. what is the latest today? reporter: nice to be with you. i actually just got off the phone and we were doing an interview with the head of the state nuclear department here, and we were asking about the biggest power plant, and it s under russian control and it s up the river from where that dam is. that nuclear power plant relied on the reservoir for power and also for water for the cooling pools. the question was, are the cooling pools level going down? he was cool that there is no panic about the cooling pool levels. he confirmed all of the six are powered down. it s not a panic around what is
these satellite images showing the devastating aftermath. the u.s. has intelligence that is leaning toward russia as the perpetrator of the attack, according to two u.s. officials and one western official. but no final determination yet. we cannot say conclusively what happened at this point. what we absolutely can say is that the damage to the ukrainian people and to the region will be significant. reporter: ukraine pointing the finger directly at moscow. president zelenskyy calling it a terrorist attack and a war crime. saying tonight up to 80 ukrainian villages could be at risk. russian state media first denied and then blamed ukraine. the kakhovka dam is one of six dams on the dnipro river. it provides vital drinking water. it provides power, and it provides water for the cooling pools at the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. one analyst estimates some 300,000 civilians could be without clean drinking water by tonight. and some 500,000 will be affected by power outages and floo
fire from the russian troops proved too much. there were fears that one reactor had been hit. there were fears that shells hit in the opening cooling pools with the facility, but again, this did not happen and again, the nightmare of chernobyl on top of everything else that is happening in this war did not go down to. it shows you, trace, the many dangers out there in all sorts of forms to human life to civilization. back to you. trace: greg palkot live in london thank you. it is not just the plant ends before that has the atomic watchdog agency concerned. we have 15 nuclear reactors across the country. this hour, there is great concern they can all come under fire as a russia attempts to cut off ukraine s power supply. with us is john national security advisor and dick cheney who is also with the jewish institute for national security of america. john come always great to have you won but i want to play the