President's Office names people possibly responsible for blowing up Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant
Early reports indicate that the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was blown up by the 205th Separate Cossack Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian armed forces.
Source: Mykhailo Podoliak, the advisor to the head of the President’s Office, during the national joint 24/7 newscast; Ukrainska Pravda
Quote: "Our intelligence has already provided data on which Russian military unit did this – the 205th Motor Rifle [Brigade]."
Details: Podoliak recalled that under the Geneva Convention, the blowing up of a hydroelectric power plant is an undeniable use of indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction.
According to an analysis by Ukrainska Pravda, representatives of the 205th Separate Cossack Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces have long been based at the Kakhovka HPP.
The brigade is known for taking part in the first Chechen war and its motto is "205th Brigade, we will return even from hell". Currently, it mostly consists of conscripts from various regions of Russia.
The commander of the 205th Brigade is 40-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Shandura. According to previously published information from Ukrainian intelligence, he was withdrawn from combat missions to take part in a parade in the devastated city of Mariupol in May 2022. Last autumn, some Ukrainian Telegram channels reported on the alleged killing of Shandura in Kherson Oblast.
Background:
- On the morning of 6 June, Ukraine’s Operational Command Pivden (South) reported that Russian occupation forces had blown up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP). The dam and the power plant's turbine hall were completely destroyed. The hydroelectric power plant is beyond repair. According to a preliminary forecast, the reservoir is expected to be drained within the next four days.
- Water from the reservoir has begun to flood towns and villages, and evacuations of local residents from dangerous areas have begun. The potential flood zone on the right bank of the Dnipro River includes the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Lvove, Tiahynka, Poniativka, Ivanivka, Tokarivka, Prydniprovske, Sadove and part of the city of Kherson – Korabel Island. The electricity supply has been cut off in the Korabel microdistrict in Kherson due to flooding.
- The blowing up of the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant has caused problems with the water supply in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Marhanets and Nikopol, Dnipro Oblast.
- Zelenskyy called an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defence Council to address the blowing up of the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.
- Ukraine's Armed Forces have stated that the Russians’ blowing up of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant will not prevent the Defence Forces from continuing to liberate the occupied territories.
- A week before the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was blown up, the Russian authorities authorised the non-investigation of accidents at high-risk facilities that occurred as a result of "military operations" and terrorist attacks.
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