Kakhovka Dam (Digital art by © Neivanmade)Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, alleged on Tuesday he had information that Ukrainian forces were preparing a massive strike on the dam.
Around 80 settlements were in danger of flooding, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, ordering a mass evacuation from risk areas.
Ukrainian officials said the allegation was a sign that Moscow planned to attack the dam and blame Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Russia had mined the dam and was preparing to blow it, a step compared to the use of weapons of mass destruction.
“I informed the Europeans today, during the meeting of the European Council, about the next terrorist attack, which Russia is preparing for at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant” he said. “Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster.” “Russia has detonated a bomb of mass environmental destruction calling it “the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.”
Zelenskyy called the Kremlin “the most dangerous terrorist in the world that needed to face “strict accountability.”
“It is physically impossible to blow it up somehow from the outside, by shelling,” Zelenskyy responded to Russian claims that Ukraine had done so. “It was mined by the Russian occupiers. And they blew it up.”
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the destruction of the dam was a “carefully planned act of terrorism” and a “global ecological disaster.”
Podolyak said “The terrorists’ goal is obvious — to create obstacles for the offensive actions of the armed forces.”
NUCLEAR PLANT RISKS
Destruction of the dam, which holds water equal to the Great Salt Lake in the United States, could have a catastrophic impact on local communities and the environment.
Built in 1956, the Soviet-era dam is 30 yards tall and 2 miles long built on the river as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. Water from the reservoir helps cool the nearby Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as well as supplies drinking water to Russian-occupied Crimea.
Ukraine’s state energy company, Energoatom, said that the dam breach could have “negative consequences” for the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, but that the situation was still under control.
Kakhovka Dam (Digital art by © Neivanmade)The preponderance of evidence so far leans towards Russia blowing the dam.
1. People nearby the dam do not report hearing artillery.
2. No one heard or saw Ukrainian jets.
3. The Russians had exclusive control of the facility and had the access to place demolition charges inside the dam.
It’s too soon to say ‘Russia did it’ but at this point that’s what would appear to be the logical assessment.