New to the majority of the population, the word “ecocide” has now entered the lexicon of Western politicians, convinced that the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, which is under Russian control, was also destroyed by it. This is the name given to the infliction of serious damage to nature, which the UN, however, does not yet classify as an international crime.
On the other hand, the Geneva Conventions directly state the prohibition of attacks on dams, dams and nuclear power plants. Zelenskyy, who earlier urgently convened the National Security and Defense Council, calls what happened to the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station the biggest man-made environmental disaster in Europe and accuses Russia of terrorism .
According to the Ukrainian leader, it is unrealistic to blow up the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station with shelling, and it was mined inside. This is an article published in the Washington Post only in December last year, in which the journalist recounts his conversation with a major general of the Ukrainian army.
“Kovalchuk considered the possibility of flooding the river. The Ukrainians, he said, even tested a HIMARS launcher at one of the locks of the Novaya Kakhovka dam, drilling three holes in the metal to see if the water level in the Dnieper could be high enough to block the Russian passages without flooding them. .neighboring villages”, his remarks are quoted in the article.
Here is a blow that, apparently, was also struck from the inside at the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station last fall. It came under Russian control almost immediately after the start of the special operation. In July last year, the town of Novaya Kakhovka, located five kilometers from the station, came under fire.
© TV and Radio Company Zvezda Charles Michel, President of the European Council, was the first among foreign leaders to react to the incident. He blamed the destruction of civilian infrastructure on Russia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced the shift of the conflict to a new dimension. The Kremlin’s reaction to these accusations was made by presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
“We can resolutely reject them, resolutely deflect them. We officially declare: here we are clearly talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side, which was planned and executed by order of Kyiv, the Kiev regime. Apparently, this sabotage is also related to the fact that after launching large-scale offensive operations two days ago, the Ukrainian armed forces are no longer achieving their goals. These offensive actions are suffocating,” Peskov said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, unlike his Western colleagues, has been much more cautious in his assessments. He said he did not have precise data on what happened at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.
And here the reaction of the largest German tabloid Bild is typical, which first blamed Russia for the destruction of the dam, then changed the headline.
“Why should we blow up the sluices if the main impact of this flood will fall on the territory of the Kherson region, which is part of Russia? Complete nonsense, which only a person with a damaged psyche can believe,” Yury Knutov, a military expert and director of the Air Defense Force History Museum, said in a comment to Zvezda.
The Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station is the sixth in the cascade of Dnieper hydroelectric power stations. As part of the GOELRO plan (or electrification of Russia), 12,000 people, 1,100 machines, including 75 crawler cranes, were involved in this one of the major communist projects. The height of the dam is 16.5 meters and its length is four kilometers. Although, in terms of capacity, the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station accounts for only 5% of Sayano-Shushenskaya’s electricity production.
“The cubic capacity that accumulated in the reservoir, and it was accumulated by the Ukrainians, probably in advance. The outlets of the upper reservoirs were reinforced in order to overflow the reservoir of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, which, in fact, was done. The water was very big. They had planned, apparently, this sabotage. And in order to maximize the damage, they filled this reservoir, filled it to very high levels, ”explained Vladimir Tetelmin, chief specialist of the RUDN University Institute of Ecology, member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.
In confirmation of these words, data from the US Department of Agriculture, according to which the water level in the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant less than a month ago reached record levels – 17 meters. According to the French control agency, this is the highest level in the last seven years.
“Ukraine itself has long since become a terrorist state, because what does not work on the battlefield, as a rule, terrorists do on the sly. Most likely, this was nevertheless developed at the military intelligence headquarters of Ukraine, perhaps at the General Staff. Ukraine will take responsibility for this,” said Volodymyr Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee.
According to experts, it will take at least a year to restore power to the affected areas. The Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant itself – and this opinion is shared both in Ukraine and in Russia – cannot be repaired. It will have to be rebuilt.
Read the Russia Ukraine News on The Eastern Herald.
