On Friday, Ukraine’s domestic security service said it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine, unleashing mass flooding, forcing thousands of residents to flee and wreaking environmental havoc. The SBU posted a one-and-a-half-minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation, which featured two men who appeared to be discussing the disaster in Russian.
In the recording, one of the men identifies himself as a member of a Russian military unit and says his team set off the explosion in the middle of the night to prevent Ukrainian soldiers from accessing the site. The SBU says it has opened a criminal investigation into the incident and that it is possible the men were trying to commit treason.
The dam’s destruction has caused widespread flooding in villages and towns downstream. It also threatens to affect water supplies to the city of Zaporizhzhia, which sits atop the dam’s reservoir. In addition, the reservoir’s collapse is draining water into the Black Sea, which could cause a massive environmental disaster there.
Russia has denied involvement in the blast. But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine slammed Russia for the disaster and said it confirmed that Moscow must be forced out of every corner of the country, “not by water, but by missiles.”
On Wednesday, a top SBU official told reporters that the blast was likely a deliberate act by a Russian special forces unit. The SBU officer, Andriy Humenyuk, said the men may have hoped to provoke an international response to Russia’s military aggression. He noted that the bombs used in the attack were huge and that their trajectory was similar to previous attempts by Russia to wear down air-defense systems in Ukraine.
Russia is continuing its armed invasion of Ukraine. It has already captured several dozen Ukrainian soldiers and has seized control of large swaths of land in the east and south of the country.
During the crisis, the UN accused Russia of violating the Geneva Convention and using warplanes to drop weapons on civilians. It has also accused Russia of killing civilians and children and targeting hospitals.
The explosion ripped through the dam at about 2:20 am on Tuesday, sending tons of rubble tumbling into the river below. It was followed by a massive wave of floodwater that swept away roads and houses. The waters quickly reached the town of Nova Kakhovka, where about 17,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
The destroyed dam was holding back the vast Kakhovka reservoir, a massive body of water that forms the river’s bed. It has been in dispute since the beginning of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia last year. Ukraine holds the western bank of the river, while Russia controls the eastern side.
European Union chief Jens Stoltenberg condemned the bombing of the Kakhovka dam, saying the attack put civilians at risk and damaged civilian infrastructure. He pledged to hold Russia accountable. Lithuania’s president and the foreign ministers of Latvia and Estonia echoed that, saying that attacking civilian infrastructure amounts to a war crime.
