Based on data from seismic and satellite activity, as well as the assessment of various experts, the New York Times it claims that the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam, which occurred in the early hours of the 6th, was not an accident. Moreover, the only party that could have blown up the infrastructure was the occupier, the Russian.
The investigation was published when the death toll on both banks of the Dnieper stood at 45, in addition to 31 missing.
“The evidence clearly suggests that the dam was damaged by an explosion caused by the controlling party: Russia,” the team wrote. NYT. On the one hand, seismic sensors in Ukraine and Romania detected large explosions at the site, which was confirmed by witnesses on the scene.
In addition, US intelligence satellites have picked up infrared heat signals that indicate an explosion. With the hypothesis of collapse due to damage caused by attacks on the road crossing the dam on both sides ruled out, or that the structure had collapsed because an uncontrolled stream of water overflowed the lock gates, it had yet to be understood how the explosion could have been occurred.
“The gallery is the ideal place to place this explosive charge,” said geotechnical engineer Michael W. West, a view shared by two other engineers and an explosives expert.
Since the gallery, or maintenance passage, was under Russian control, suspicion falls on the Moscow men.
Just hours after the dam collapsed, Mykola Kalinin, chief engineer at the hydroelectric company Ukrhydroproject, said the only possible explanation was that the dam had been quarried from the inside because it was built to “resist a super-powerful impact from the outside.” The Kremlin has already pointed the finger at Kiev, after saying it was an act of “sabotage” and Vladimir Putin saying it was an “act of barbarism”.
The independent international commission of inquiry in Ukraine, set up by the UN Human Rights Council, will investigate the consequences of the breaching of the dam.
Source: DN
