Quoting the above Washington Post piece Andrew Korybko points to a possible motive for today's demolishing of the dam:
"[Kovalchuk's] remark about how “the step remained a last resort” is pertinent to recall at present considering that the first phase of Kiev’s NATO-backed counteroffensive completely failed on Monday according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. Just like Ukraine launched its proxy invasion of Russia in late May to distract from its loss in the Battle of Artyomovsk, so too might does it seem to have gone through with Kovalchuk’s planned war crime to distract from this most recent embarrassment as well."
The most recent embarrassment was the failure of yesterday's attack near Novodarovka and Levadnoye. As the Russian Ministry of Defense noted in a special statement:
"As a result of active and self-sacrificing actions of the Vostok Group of Forces, which displayed courage and heroism, the enemy has been stopped, and the set tasks haven’t been achieved. The AFU formations and military units suffered significant losses.
Total AFU losses in South Donetsk direction were over 1,500 Ukrainian servicemen, 28 tanks, including FRG-manufactured 8 Leopard tanks, three French-manufactured AMX-10 wheeled tanks, and 109 armoured fighting vehicles."
What Zaporizhia doink?
moonofalabama.org has good info.
So we’ve got the BBC, which has a vested interest (NATO)
We’ve got Prigozhin, who has a vested interest (setting up life after war, defending the ‘honor’ of his mercenaries compared with Russian troops), and the assertions some have said that he has PTSD.
We’ve got Russia, which has a vested interest (wartime psyops).
I can believe Russia lost fewer/killed more than the Ukraine just based on armaments/ammo/missiles (Russia has so much more than NATO) but these numbers in the OP seem exaggerated. There are some claiming both have modern weapons - well the Ruskies have so much more, and more trained people to fire them. The Ukraine has an insignificant airforce, so that disparity alone could cost many lives.