Most Of Evidence Indicates That Kakhovska HPP Dam Was Blown Up By Russians - ISW

There is still no definitive answer to what happened to the Kakhovska HPP, but the evidence indicates that the Russians deliberately blew up the dam.

Analysts of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) came to this conclusion.

They recalled that back in October of last year, ISW wrote that the Russian Federation was interested in flooding the lower reaches of the Dnieper, even if its forces would suffer in the process. The Russians may seek to widen the river to complicate Ukrainian attempts at a counteroffensive. Russian politicians, bloggers and propagandists have repeatedly said that the Russian Federation is afraid of forcing the Dnieper.

Videos from June 6 and statements by Kremlin military bloggers indicate that the flood washed away Ukrainian positions on the banks of the Dnieper and forced Ukrainian formations to evacuate under Russian artillery fire, ISW notes.

ISW does not take seriously the evidence that without the Kakhovskyi Reservoir, Crimea will remain without water, since Crimea was without water from the Dnieper from 2014 to 2022 anyway.

The ISW called implausible the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's statement that Ukrainian troops allegedly carried out a sabotage attack on the dam due to defeats in a large-scale offensive. Analysts noted that Ukraine did not start large-scale offensive operations.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, ecologists have only begun to voice the consequences that the flooding will lead to. In addition to the destruction of people's homes and the death of animals, agriculture will suffer. 10,000 hectares of agricultural land on the right bank of the Kherson Region may be flooded due to the destruction of the Kakhovska HPP by the Russian occupiers.

Due to the undermining of the Kakhovska HPP, territories in the Kherson Region may be flooded for more than 10 years.

On Tuesday, June 6, the Russian occupation army blew up the Kakhovska HPP dam, which led to an uncontrolled discharge of a large amount of water downstream of the Dnieper.