Posted on 06/06/2023 8:54:33 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
On the morning of June 6, in the Kherson region, it became known about the breakthrough of the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP. Kiev blamed Russia for the explosion of the hydroelectric power station, Russia stated that the reason for the dam break was allegedly the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (while local residents, including those who lived close to the dam, did not report anything about the shelling).
MAIN TOPIC: the breakthrough of the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP in the Kherson region. What has already been flooded, how could it happen and what will be the consequences
[Photos and VIDEO at Link]
Due to the break of the dam, water from the Kakhovsky reservoir went along the Dnieper, flooding coastal villages. Within a few hours, Novaya Kakhovka, where the dam was located, was completely flooded. In Kherson, which is under the control of Kiev, an evacuation was announced, and a few hours later the occupation authorities, who control the territory on the left bank of the Dnieper, did the same. Representatives of the administration of the President of Ukraine Zelensky said that as a result of the break of the dam, more than 80 settlements of the Kherson region were destroyed and damaged, the regional biosystem of the southern delta of the Dnieper, as well as the Black Sea region, was damaged or completely destroyed, and in addition, the irrigation system in the south of Ukraine and the water supply infrastructure of the occupied Crimea were destroyed.
The correspondent of the Present Time Alexey Prodayvoda spoke with Sergey and Anastasia Rybalchenko, volunteers from Kherson, who from early morning, even before the official announcement, helped evacuate residents of the private sector in the suburbs. They managed to make five “flights” there and back, and each time, according to them, it was more difficult and more dangerous to make their way through the streets – not only because of the incoming water, but also because the Russian military opened fire several times on those who tried to evacuate.
Sergey and Anastasia separately say that before what happened at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, the Russian military heavily mined the left bank of the Dnieper. And all the mines and tripwires installed by them were simply demolished by the flood to Kherson and the surrounding villages, and this poses a great danger to local residents.
PLEASE TELL US how you found out about what happened at the Kakhovskaya HPP, and how you realized that you had to leave?
Sergey: Our morning started at five-thirty: they said that the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station had been blown up and that water had gone.
First of all, we called all the friends who are in the coastal zone, asked who needed help. Everyone initially said: yes, there is a little bit of water. People strongly did not believe that there would be (a flood).
We jumped into the car and immediately drove to the Neftegavan area of Kherson, it is completely on the water. When we drove there, it was already an hour or a little more after the explosion. There was already water in people’s vegetable gardens, and the streets were still dry.
We left, I went to make the second trip. And at this time, water was already beginning to run into the streets – a small layer. When I made my third trip there, to Neftegavan, I was still able to drive the car a little bit into the streets of the district themselves. And the fourth and fifth trips – I just stayed only on the main street, because it was already impossible to go further, the water was knee-deep. The last, fifth time, the water was already above the knee.
“A very serious man-made disaster.” The representative of the Kherson regional Council – about the breakthrough of the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP
We were taking people away. Many people did not want to evacuate with the words: “This is my home, I will be here! Why?”
That is, Nastya and I really persuaded people together! They were able to persuade and took out a total of four families. Then they made trips already for dogs. People said the addresses where the dogs stayed, and we took the dogs out.
– IS IT TRUE that the Russian military fired on those who tried to evacuate from Kherson?
Anastasia: This is the saddest thing! We made the first trip, we left the Island, Neftegavani, at fifteen to seven in the morning. And at that moment they started launching mines! That is, people are going to pick up their property, take themselves out, animals. And they are figachat mines!
Sergey: Yes, they fired at us, several arrivals were a little far, 300 meters from us, maybe a little more. Because we only heard and saw the smoke. But there were several nearby: fragments were falling near us. And they started hitting the village itself.
Anastasia: On the last trip, Sergey miraculously survived, because they dropped grenades from drones! And the grenades exploded over them!
Sergey: Yes, the guys and I did the last walk, and it was just unreal: the central street was already flooded. After that, I was still pulling out cars that had sunk. And they threw two grenades from the drones, one exploded in the villages in the distance, and one exploded right in the branches 4-5 meters above our head, exactly above our head.
“They freaked out from fear.” Will the breakthrough of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam prevent the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army – experts explain
We were saved by a tree, a poplar. Because shrapnel flew around us. There was a car nearby – the windshield was broken in it, there were two hits. And we just miraculously got through! I was with two guys, we were just at that moment loading a dog, a labrador, into the car. The owners were taken out, and then they returned for the dog. We just miraculously survived.
– DO I UNDERSTAND CORRECTLY that the Russian military saw from the left bank that people were being evacuated, fleeing from the water, saw that these were peaceful people, not military, civilian vehicles? And they purposefully specifically fired at these vehicles?
Sergey: Yes, that’s right, in the truest sense of the word. That is, all cars are civilian. There, of course, is the police, controls the exit, how and what, everything is hidden under trees, etc. And they launched a drone. We were standing in an open area at the turn, unloaded. And as the drone flew by, he dropped the grenade at that moment. We were just lucky that they were crooked-armed: they threw from a great height and threw, let’s say, a little to the right of us and hit not us, but a tree. The tree saved us! This is by drone. And in the morning they worked with a mortar – just on people who were evacuated.
– What is happening now on the streets of the area from where you took people? Is there anyone left there now? What is going on in the coastal areas of Kherson at the moment? Is there an evacuation going on, does someone else need help?
Sergey: From what we know, and what I personally saw: neither I, nor the police, nor the military were able to persuade several families to leave. They said: we have a three-storey house, and we will stay on the third floor in the house.
I was able to persuade the other family: they also did not want to leave, they said they would be in their attic. I went into their yard – they live right near the lake: if there was 15 centimeters of water on the street, then they already had knee-deep water in their yard. I barely persuaded them to leave! We just took them away. That is, the police talked to them – they didn’t want to leave, and somehow it was really difficult for me, but I managed to persuade them, and I took them away. Family, husband and wife aged, and their neighbor, a man of 45 years.
Anastasia: They probably didn’t even start taking any actions regarding the evacuation of the population, etc., until eight in the morning, no one at all.
Sergei: Well, the police have already gone.
Anastasia: We saw two cars at seven in the morning, but it all started massively only after eight in the morning: some buses, somewhere something began to organize. In Antonovka, near the Antonovsky Bridge, the stadium was also partially flooded, houses were flooded. That is, where my husband went, repaired roofs, windows, etc., on the water, there are no even tops visible at the houses.
Sergei: What was the last thing I saw when I left: according to how I know the bridge and the coastal area, the water rose by about 3.5-4 meters. This is at the moment when I was making my last trip. That is, I have been driving only on water for the entire Neftegavan. The whole area, the entire central road – everything is completely on the water.
– WHAT TIME WAS THAT? IS THE WATER STILL COMING NOW?
Sergey: The water was still coming. I returned at 11 o’clock, and the water was still coming at full speed. When you walk along the street, not along the central one, but along any side, then you see how the fence from the profiled sheet simply breaks the current. That is, there is a big current and breaks the fence, breaks the gate. You pass near some intersection, take a step, and the stream just blows you away! Plus, you walk knee-deep and more in the water, and you just start to drift, that is, a huge current is flowing.
– WHAT ARE YOUR FORECASTS: when will the water finish coming and when will it recede? What do you see on the spot, what do the services say? Maybe you talked to some of the guys there, with the deesenes?
Anastasia: Well, as for the forecasts, the first, most obvious thing is that Kherson will remain without any communications, light and water. There is no tap water in the city anymore, because all the pumping stations of the Gorvodokanal were located near the water. Therefore, if there is water in the city somewhere, it is already remnants. The lights are also turned off in places.
Regarding the water level: according to forecasts, it was generally that at 11 o’clock in the afternoon there should be a peak height of this water. But at the moment there is still an addition and an addition.
Sergey: The old rules of emergency regulations say: if something happens, then theoretically within 6-8 hours the water arrives, then 72 hours the water stands, the level is leveled, and after that it begins to recede.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/M1pn_V09Z-4
Judging by the video, the dam was blown up somewhere from the middle to the very bottom, that is, not the top some meter or two, but a really huge hole was made, which is why a huge stream of water went. I understand that a lot of explosives were planted there, a lot, in order to destroy such power.
Anastasia: Now the most terrible thing is that water flows not only wash out and destroy houses, now a lot more mines are being washed out of the ground, etc. And everywhere along the coastal zone there is a detonation of mines!
Sergey: Over the past few months, there has been information that Russian troops are very tightly mining the coast, the entire coastal zone of the left bank – both on land and on water, they put tripwires on reeds, trees, as well as water mines, etc. Now, due to the large flow of water on the left side of the shore, it all went in all directions, to Kherson, down through the villages, into the Dnieper estuary, etc. A huge amount of all this has gone there, and it is now starting to detonate in the course of the action.
Anastasia: Well, accordingly, the districts of the city, such as Voenka (Kherson), Rechport, our embankment – not only are they under water, so we are still waiting for the detonation!
Sergey: And the consequences of all this.
– REGARDING THE SHELLING OF KHERSON. Do you think they will subside due to the fact that the left bank and the positions of the Russian military were also flooded?
Sergei: We just wrote an interview with you, I don’t know if it was heard in the background or not, but there was a whistle – something was flying, and not from us, but in us.
Anastasia: So that you understand: on this night, on the night of the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP, they also shelled the city with whatever they could. The center was shelled, residential buildings were shelled.
Sergey: They started at one-thirty in the morning. The first arrivals were incendiary, they were in the far region – Northern, Tauride. And after that, they began to work from a mortar in all other districts of the city. That is, practically nothing flew into one district, there was nothing there, and all the other districts of the city were under heavy shelling, and there was a lot of destruction. I just went yesterday already on applications: people called who needed help with roofs, windows. The whole Northern one was strewn with these “lighters”, what is flying apart.
Anastasia: I am more than sure that they will continue to fire and they will continue even more intensely. Kherson will still suffer and suffer, unfortunately.
Proving once again that the Russian military and its leaders are scumbags. This is the group the Putin fan boys want running Ukraine.
I’ve tuned out the Russian and Ukrainian war beyond wanting all US support to end. But seeing the many headlines and news, seems most likely that Ukraine did this, they even discussed and planned doing it. Easy to blame Russia. Guess both at fault. We need to stop funding he war and cut off any countries, such as India and China that are helping as well.
VIDEO
“The Russian military and its leaders are scumbags”
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On June 6, 2023, the Nova Kakhovka Dam failed. It was quietly a critical piece of Ukrainian infrastructure: drying a flood plain, providing electricity, guaranteeing a nuclear power plant’s safety, and irrigating the regions south. This video looks at the consequences of its destruction, and how it will play into Ukraine’s upcoming (or ongoing?) counteroffensive.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04sg2uHQK7w
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V07aM2ePr80
Do you have any information that is not hidden behind a paywall? Like maybe a local or state news source?
The only thing the left out WAS NOT drones dropping grenades. The people being interviewed for this article were drone bombed. The drone was too high so the grenade missed a bit. I wouldn’t put these SOBs past setting up snipers. They were targeting civilian vehicles evacuating families
I just hope this is shown in Russia and either turns the stomachs of, or worries the population about this horrible behavior, and the possibility of having the same thing be done to them.
I guess you missed the part about Russia controlling the road/dam and area around it. No way Ukraine snuck in and set up an explosion this massive and deep.
“Ask who benefits?”
I did. But I didn’t do a Sesame Street level look.
I looked at the footage of the explosion, and compared it to the visible damage on the dam (the BBC fact checking service has aerial shots taken over several days, showing its deterioration).
I looked at troop movements. In particular, occupation of the Kherson islands by Ukrainian forces, Russkies have been attacking those positions while they’re trying to retreat, and senior Russian spokespersons are only too happy that they’ve been successful in destroying some of that force, and celebrating its retreat.
I looked at telegram. Before the dam breached, Russia was saying nothing about it showing signs of failing integrity, but you did have Russian soldiers boasting that they’d mined the area and planted explosives INSIDE the plant and the dam.
I looked at the changing narrative by the local gauleiters and their Moscow media masters. For the first hour after the initial report of a breach they were saying that Russian forces had caused a small explosion, and successfully blocked an “attack on the dam” by Ukraine.
Note they only claimed Ukraine HAD attacked the dam after the sun came up and they realised something had gone terribly wrong. Up to that point it was the usual Minority Report bullshit. Ukraine’s gonna attack the dam. We’ll stop them. By blowing up the road.
All of which points to immense Russian cock-uo, but not to a Russian conspiracy. What it doesn’t do at all is give a single shred of evidence backing up any sane argument that Ukraine stuck into a dam controlled by Russia and blew it up, or Ukraine did a Dambusters raid, or a Uke drone cracked the dam.
Then there’s the seismic detection. Three countries away from Ukraine, the dam failure set off seismographs. If you think a hit on the dam top did that, you’re dumb. Go back to school.
To those who just look at isolated snapshots and the news sources they like most, who really think “Russia couldn’t have been responsible because why would they do it” I’ll just quote Sherlock Holmes said, “you see, but you do not observe.”
This has CASCADE FAILURE written all over it. Russia sat on top of a dam that had impaired structural integrity, the signs of its failure have been there for anyone to see... And instead of warning it was going to crack or, heck, even attempting to make it more stable, they decking mined the area, planted explosives in it, and blew stuff up in proximity to the damaged area.
Russia’s gotta Russia. Utterly, utterly reckless, thoughtless, obsessed with avoiding a propaganda fail, ass-covering.
“Dam’s about to crack? Oh dear. How sad. Never mind that, Vladimir Vladimirovich will shit the bed if the Ukes get across the river. Priorities.”
“three holes in the metal” is not quite the same thing as “cracking the immense concrete structure open like an egg”.
According to Russia’s ever-bullshit ever-changing story, first they blew something up then the ukes flew a drone and possibly a missile flew by or maybe it didn’t, and something bumped the tarmac, and... maybe something like this happened.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=-6vCQfmnpoQ
Just ignore all those little explosions INSIDE the concrete structure, that absolutely weren’t explosives exploding.
In L.A. they started using robotic dogs to police the city. There are hundreds if not thousands of these robots waiting to be put to use in the rest of America.
uke leaders are the ones who publicly stated they had a plan to blow it up.
then struck the dam/bridge area with himars last december.
i saw the bbc photo’s too.
i’m still unsure how it occurred
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kievs-long-term-last-resort-plan-blow-kakhova-dam-exposed
Timeline of the Russian narrative, per an author at @wartranslated, indicates that Ria News commented:
Мэр Новой Каховки Леонтьев опроверг РИА Новости информацию о подрыве Каховской ГЭС, назвал это бредом. Он добавил, что в городе везде все тихо и спокойно. t.me/rian_ru/204791Translation: The mayor of Nova Kakhovka Leontiev denied RIA Novosti information about the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, called it nonsense. He added that everything is quiet and calm everywhere in the city.
Here's the tweet from Рыбарь (http://rybar.ru - 1.1 million subscribers) posted before 4:50am (it was edited at 04:51.)
Видео взрыва на Каховской ГЭС старое: подрыв небольшого участка во время вывода ВС РФ с правобережья Днепра. #Россия #Украина #Херсон. t.me/rybar/48068Translation: The video of the explosion at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station is old: a small area was blown up during the withdrawal of the RF Armed Forces from the right bank of the Dnieper. #Russia #Ukraine #Kherson.
Which is "interesting".
Because our friend Rybar posted, at 05:41, "In the Kherson region, as a result of multiple strikes by the AFU on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, the dam structure of the reservoir collapsed. The rising water level downstream of the Dnieper led to the flooding of towns and villages on both the left and right banks".
So over the course of 45 minutes he went from very specifically saying that RF forces did it while withdrawing, to saying "multiple strikes" by the AFU. Problem is, we can clearly watch the darned footage. Nothing hit the dam top except for perhaps a very, VERY unlucky seagull some time later...
Footage of what appears to be the explosion of a mine at the dam: Seven seconds in you see a bird flapping its way across the bridge, just before there's an explosion on the roadway; 2-3 seconds later you see a bubble erupting directly above the center of the pic. That means there was an explosion BELOW the waterline. 28-29 seconds in there's another surface bubble, not more than a yard or two from the first one. Again, below the water. Of course this is somewhat academic because by this time the dam had already breached, but it does mean stuff kept blowing more chunks out of it after the initial incident.
So, what was the original cause? "Multiple strikes" by the AFU? Not necessarily, according to this...
Новая версия по Каховской ГЭС: ошибка саперов и незапланированный взрыва.. t.me/volyamedia/681Precis: New version of the Kakhovskaya HPP: sappers' mistake and an unplanned explosion: On the afternoon of June 6, we received a message from a source who introduced himself as a member of the RF Armed Forces. According to him, the explosion of the dam was planned for the end of this week. On the evening of June 5, sappers of the 31st Engineer Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Sivyh and Senior Lieutenant Goncharov worked at the hydroelectric power station...
A smart person might ask, why would a couple of engineers be checking the explosives in the dam at 2am and how would they get from checking 'em to setting 'em off?
Of course this source hasn't been verified, so it COULD be fake news. But seriously, it does sound a whole lot more plausible than a barrage of Ukrainian missiles, drones or small arms fire causing irreparable damage to the dam, while it was under RF stewardship, WITHOUT ANYBODY CAPTURING ANYTHING AT ALL ON CAMERA OR AUDIO BEFORE THE BLAST.
Footage from the exact moment of the dam detonation (allegedly) shows absolutely bugger all happening anywhere near the roadway until fifteen seconds in when there's a huge flash of light. Note, this camera is facing north, so the pylons are on the Ukrainian side. If the Ukes were attacking the bridge, they must've been some way off in the distance trying to blow themselves up.>/p>
interesting video. i doubt authenticity.
in first dam already breached b4 video started.
poor bird.
flash to me looked beyond the dam.
bubbles just from water rushing thru.
second video was probaly himars from 2022.
.
i’ve seen an interview with a uke soldier who evacuated before water arrived and then watched rus soldiers getting swept away.
if they had a heads up alert,that would be telling.
i still don’t know who did it but am sceptical that it could have been caused by 2022 damage.
“Welcome to the real-time HTML editor!
Timeline of the Russian narrative, per an author at @wartranslated, indicates that Ria News commented:
Мэр Новой Каховки Леонтьев опроверг РИА Новости информацию о подрыве Каховской ГЭС, назвал это бредом. Он добавил, что в городе везде все тихо и спокойно. t.me/rian_ru/204791
Translation: The mayor of Nova Kakhovka Leontiev denied RIA Novosti information about the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, called it nonsense. He added that everything is quiet and calm everywhere in the city.
Here’s the tweet from Рыбарь (http://rybar.ru - 1.1 million subscribers) posted before 4:50am (it was edited at 04:51.)
Видео взрыва на Каховской ГЭС старое: подрыв небольшого участка во время вывода ВС РФ с правобережья Днепра.
#Россия #Украина #Херсон. t.me/rybar/48068
Translation: The video of the explosion at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station is old: a small area was blown up during the withdrawal of the RF Armed Forces from the right bank of the Dnieper. #Russia #Ukraine #Kherson.”
Greatly appreciate your providing this research & commentary. Thank you so much
As the summations states: it does sound a whole lot more plausible than a barrage of Ukrainian missiles, drones or small arms fire causing irreparable damage to the dam, while it was under RF stewardship, WITHOUT ANYBODY CAPTURING ANYTHING AT ALL ON CAMERA OR AUDIO BEFORE THE BLAST.
Coupling that with the fact one week before Kakhovka explosion, Russia suspended accountability for military-caused hazards.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4159004/posts
The BBC and other sites have aerial photos of the dam going back over a week. Clearly from those pics you can see that there already was damage to the road, with the water flow looking irregular.
So the Russian tweet suggesting some footage is old, does make sense.
Again, even if Ukes near the dam were getting out of the way that doesn’t automatically mean they were planning to blow it up.
Since some Russians in the area were saying the dam had been rigged to blow, and since it was deteriorating rapidly so an unavoidable collapse might’ve looked imminent, and since Russia’s been slowly evacuating citizens from some towns on their side of the Dnieper for weeks, I think both sides have plausible deniability.
Just don’t see Ukraine having anything like the motive, means OR opportunity to destroy this dam, especially when their forces downstream were relying on the islands and dry conditions to advance into eastern Kherson toward the border with Zaporozhzhia.
That’s not to say it must’ve been Russia with the motive. They may have had opportunity but I agree, as motives and means go, washing tens of thousands of Ukes away deliberately (like 1941) without fully evacuating their own folks from the lowlands is a bit too Lex Luthor Beachfront Property.
Smells to me of a combination of utter negligence and misadventure.
With possibly a side dose of “we need to do something, this is something, therefore we must do it” in relation to the Ukrainian advances in Kherson.
If Russia’s grunts are to be believed, the commanders didn’t just wire the dam up, they were planning to detonate before the weekend... And as you say that would’ve killed their own troops and civilians. Why would they do it?
My answer would be, they fear their own leaders too much to say no.
Failure to deliver promised military successes, or experiencing military humiliation, is so toxic that it’s about as palatable to the middle management of this war as telling Putin directly that he can screw himself. Windows, polonium tea, a fragging by the rearguard...
If they’d been ordered to blow the dam up rather than risk Ukraine getting control over the crossing point, the last thing on their minds would be, will some grunts downriver get wet.
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