After blowing up the Baltic Sea gas pipeline and the Kerch bridge leading to Crimea, NATO saboteurs attacked the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant which suffered heavy damage Tuesday morning.
Russian forces established control over the Kakhovka hydroplant on the day Moscow launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, signaling its strategic importance.
Ukrainian forces almost immediately began shelling areas around the plant and its dam using long-range artillery and tactical missiles, including Tochka-U and HIMARS.
Ukrainian forces also carried out shelling attacks against the city of Novaya Kakhovka itself, killing and injuring dozens of local residents.
With its dam now destroyed and water flowing uncontrollably downstream, risking major flooding, power cuts and water shortages on both sides of the Dnepr River are a fact. Butm as usual, Western legacy media quickly blamed Moscow for the attack?
The Kakhovka hydroplant’s dam has become the latest piece of civilian infrastructure to be destroyed in the ongoing proxy war NATO wages against Russia in Ukraine.
Situated in Kherson Region along the Dnepr River, the plant was built in 1956 in the town of Novaya Kakhovka.
In addition to generating electricity, the plant and its dam served to create the Kakhovka Reservoir – a massive, 2,150+ square kilometer, 240 km long pool of 18.2 billion cubic meters of freshwater.
This reservoir feeds the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk regions, regulating the flow of water along the Dnepr, preventing floods, and providing fresh water to the North Crimean, Kakhovka, and Dnepr-Krivoy Rog canals.
In addition, it feeds local mines, factories and settlements, provides water for farming, and, crucially – ensures the supply of water used for cooling to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.
Last August, the Kakhovka plant’s deputy director for reconstruction sounded the alarm about the threat that the dam’s destruction would pose to the downstream Zaporozhye NPP, saying problems with the dam at the Kakhovka HPP could lead to a nuclear disaster at the power plant.
That’s because nuclear fuel requires a steady supply of cool water to prevent meltdowns and radioactive contamination.
Russia moved to evacuate civilians and troops from the right bank of the Dnepr River last October in part due to concerns about Ukrainian forces’ potential destruction of the Kakhovka hydroplant’s dam.
The same month, Russia circulated a letter at the United Nations Security Council on the situation around the plant, with Russian Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzya accusing Kiev of a monstrous provocation involving the shelling of Novaya Kakhovka using up to 120 missiles and shells daily over a five-month period.
Nebenzya warned at the time that if the dam was destroyed, it could leads to thousands of civilian casualties, and untold damage to local civilian infrastructure along the Dnepr.
Nebenzya’s warnings were ignored, and seven months later, came to pass.
However, instead of remembering or taking heed of Moscow’s concerns, most Western media have, as expected, rushed to blame Russia for this latest act of terrorism against civilian infrastructure.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at risk as Russians accused of bombing dam, one major British outlet wrote. ‘Catastrophe’ fears as major dam is blown up near Kherson.
Ukraine blames Russia as explosion causes massive breach, sparking floods and putting nuclear power plant at risk, another opined. Zelensky condemns Russian ‘terrorists’ after dam attack.
US media proved just as eager to carry water for Kiev and its NATO patrons, with one major network entitling its piece on the story. Destruction of critical Ukraine dam is ecocide.
The story features the same old anti-Russian tropes, relying solely on Ukrainian government and military sources and failing to cite a single Russian source. But at least the headline isn’t just blatant propaganda anymore.
The tone taken in Western reporting, perhaps inevitable given NATO’s proxy war with Russia, is eerily reminiscent of the Western media’s takes on two other major sabotage campaigns.
In fact, this is nothing special. This is part of the same campaign on the destruction of the Donbass, of the civilian population and civilian infrastructure that has been going on since 2014.
The dam was shelled more than once. Our military, including forces stationed there, tried their best to prevent this.
But when the other side started firing from 300-mm systems – and it was these systems that were used against this dam, nothing more could be done here. The Ukrainian armed forces have been striving to blow up the Kakhovka dam for a long time.
Sputnik / ABC Flash Point News 2023.
Western MSM is fake news … it will collapse with all other nefarious western institutions … not gonna happen overnight … but it will happen … Forward In Faith.
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River could endanger the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, told the Security Council on Tuesday. Beijing has urged Ukraine and Russia to ensure this does not happen.
The same tactics, but waiting for a different outcome?
Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up the dam and flooding the downriver towns and cities, including Ukrainian-held Kherson. Moscow has pointed the finger at Kiev, noting that Ukraine has attacked the dam in the past – using US-supplied HIMARS rockets – and released water from an upstream reservoir on the Dnieper River shortly before the Kakhovka dam collapsed.