Kyiv: Kakhovka dam was blown up on Putin's order
Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said that the Russian military blew up the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant following the order of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
According to Danilov, the Russians detonated the explosives that were planted in advance, in September-October 2022.
"The order for this terrorist act was issued from the Kremlin, from Putin's office. Such instructions cannot be given from any other level. This is not the level of a battalion, a division, this is not even the level of Shoygu’s position," Danilov said on Radio Liberty broadcast.
Danilov believes that the Russians blew up the dam because of the impeding Ukrainian counteroffensive. According to him, before blowing up the dam, the Russians raised the water level at the Kakhovka reservoir.
"They are all expecting our counteroffensive. Moreover, they raised the level (of water) as much as possible. It was 18.16 meters, they raised it to more than 19 meters. They deliberately accumulated it to cause more harm during the explosion," he said.
On the night of June 6, the Russians blew up the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant causing massive flooding of the areas on both side of the Dnipro River.