[2] The canal begins at the city of Tavriisk, where it draws from the Kakhovka Reservoir fed by the Dnieper river, and runs for 402.6 km (250.2 mi) in a generally southeasterly direction, terminating at the small village of Zelnyi Yar (Lenine Raion).

[3] Seven water reservoirs lie along the main canal – they are Mizhhirne, Feodosiiske, Frontove, Leninske, Samarlynske, Starokrymske and Stantsiine (Kerchenske).

The decision was to build the Kakhovka Hydro Electric Station, South Ukrainian and North Crimean canals.

In 1951 the Soviet postal service released a commemorative post stamp where the North Crimean Canal was categorized as one of the Great Construction Projects of Communism.

[4][5] After the Maidan revolution and the subsequent Russian annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Ukrainian authorities greatly reduced the volume of water flowing to the peninsula by means of damming the canal south of Kalanchak, about 10 miles (16 km) north of the Crimean border.

The objective was to restore irrigation and urban supplies to the Kerch Peninsula and to smaller communities on the east coast of Crimea.

[16] That same year, the New York Times cited senior American officials as stating that securing Crimea's water supply could be an objective of a possible incursion by Russia into Ukraine.

[citation needed] The Head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, told local authorities to prepare the canal to receive water.

[18][19] Two days later, Russian forces used explosives to destroy the dam that had been blocking the flow since 2014, and water supply resumed.

[2] On the morning of 6 June 2023, a significant portion of the Kakhovka Dam was destroyed releasing a large amount of water downstream.

[26] According to First Deputy Prime Minister of Russian-annexed Crimea, Rustam Temirgaliyev in 2014, the normal flow of water through the North Crimean Canal was 50 m3/sec.

[37] The amount of water flowing past the intake point of the North Crimean Canal is regulated by the five reservoirs upstream on the Dnieper River, all controlled by Ukraine.