"Asia Times" on the destruction of the Kakhovka power plant: Ukraine had the motive

Western governments have unquestionably swallowed Zelensky's claim that Moscow was behind the blowing up of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. This has now been criticized by the Asia Times. The accusations against Russia need convincing arguments.

In an opinion piece, the online newspaper Asia Times examines the question of who might be interested in the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. The author of the article, Stephen Bryen, an expert at the Center for Security Policy at the Yorktown Institute, believes that Ukraine, in particular, has an understandable motive for the explosion. Bryen writes:

"[The Ukrainians] blew up the dam to lower the water level upstream so that they could more easily cross the river there in their offensive operations. Most of the water in the Kherson province ended up on the Russian side, which provides greater protection for the Ukrainian flank as well as the city of Kherson."

This assessment fits with reports that the Ukrainians want to move units from the Kherson area to the east in order to avert a failure of their offensive.

The Russians, on the other hand, have no reason to do so – "it is difficult to see what the blowing up of the dam is supposed to do for Russia". A rupture of the dam would cause serious problems for the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which requires large amounts of cooling water. The catastrophe also threatens the defense of the Russians in those areas that keep them downstream, the expert said.

"If it was Ukraine that did this, did it act on its own or did it get permission from outside? Anyone who claims that it was Russia should make arguments for this claim."

"If the idea behind it was to cause a serious nuclear accident that could be blamed on the Russians, then this is an egregious act that threatens Ukraine and Europe, maybe even the whole world," the author indignantly writes. He points out that Western politicians completely uncritically "swallowed" Zelensky's accusations against Russia.

After the initial barrage of articles accusing Russia, newspapers such as the New York Post now claimed that Putin was trying to destroy the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Bryen quotes the warnings of an ex-military: "The crazy terrorist Putin turns the plant into an improvised nuclear bomb."

Ukrainian shelling probably the most likely cause

The expert points out that the Ukrainians shelled the dam with rockets and artillery shells back in May and June 2022. A surveillance video was published on Russian television to document Ukrainian shelling on the night of June 6:

As the Russian newspaper Vedomosti notes, since July 2022, the Novaya Kakhovka power plant has been shelled countless times from the Ukrainian side, including with powerful and accurate HIMARS missiles. Numerous destructions to the dam were reported from the Russian side, including holes in the lock walls and damage to the turbines. On October 21, 2022, Russia sent a letter to the UN Security Council urging Ukraine to prevent provocations at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.

The news portal Insider also discusses the rocket fire on the power plant. In doing so, it refers to several OSINT analysts who conclude that the dam may have collapsed due to previous damage and not due to blasting out. For example, satellite images from June 4 show masses of water flowing through an already existing, smaller dam failure, with the destruction increasing over time, which is documented in another image on the right. The dam could therefore have collapsed on its own due to destruction inflicted on it earlier, according to the assessment of the well-noticed Russia-critical medium, which conducts its research from the West.

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