Any you are a civil engineer. 😂 just a Linda Graham lacky.
My status has no bearing on the fact that the Kakhovka Dam was what’s called a ‘barrage dam’ consisting of a solid concrete gravity dam topped by a series of sluice gates. This was a popular style of construction for dams of less than 150 ft from the 1920’s into the 1960’s.
The Nimbus Dam near Sacramento is similar to the Kakhovka Dam. Feel free to check it out.
Destroying the gates would not have undermined the concrete portion of the dam because it’s simply too sturdy. It can be demolished but that’s quite involved.
The Kakhovka Dam was purposefully demolished, the Russians had threatened to demolish last October, and earlier today they were taking credit for having done so and then changed their tune.
In any case the only way a stout concrete dam of this type would be destroyed is with a lot of careful preparation. A mere attack by artillery would not have done this and so far no one has said anything about artillery.
So it had to be done by someone on the ground with access to the dam. That would be Russia...unless they wish to argue that they were unable to secure this key strategic infrastructure and the Ukrainians were able to sneak in and place a few tons of charges in the dam.
Just myself but I’d say the Russians destroyed it just like they had threatened to do last year. And it was a strategically sound decision if they’re buying time to prepare the defense of Crimea.