Rising waters:
Graph showing water level in the reservoir higher than usual pre-war level:
[quote=“Snarky_Kong, post:4335, topic:973972, full:true”]
“The Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up last night. Wild. Going to be lots of flooding in Kherson oblast. The reservoir is also used to cool the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.”
It’s almost like someone is really determined to create a “nuclear incident” with that power plant.
That’s not a little damage, that’s not something that could be patched. I wonder if they have to basically start over to rebuild that dam?
(sorry, the quote tags seems to have gotten messed up)
Yeah, funny that - you keep damaging a dam and suddenly it collapses. Damage it with explosives and sure, it will collapse. Nice way to talk about it without accepting blame.
The dam just happens to ‘get damaged’ at the same time as the Ukrainians launching what is clearly the very final stage of shaping operations for their counter-offensive? Right. I suspect someone is mortally afraid of what’s coming their way and are doing everything in their power to delay that.
It’s pretty clear that it was done by the Russians, but I think it’s pointless to speculate about their strategic reasons for doing it. I don’t think there was any strategic reason: I think it was done purely out of spite, like most of the other Russian attacks. It hurts Ukrainians, therefore do it, regardless of what it’ll mean for the actual war.
The dam was a major crossing point south over the Dnipro river. Plus it is a further blow to Ukrainian electricity production which the Russians have been attacking for months. Taking it out clearly helps the Russian defence although it feels a bit desperate. And it’ll mean a bit of a water shortage in Crimea.
I’ll speculate it means the Russians don’t think they can hold Crimea.
Russian state media reported in November last year that Crimea’s reservoirs had been topped up and had enough water for two years of supply:
How much of a shortage?
I know nothing about the geography of Crimea.
About a year ago I remember reading something about the water supply…and how even after Russia conquered Crimea, Ukraine continued to allow the full supply of water flowing from its territory to Crimea. It seemed to me like a “gentleman’s agreement” that both Ukraine and Russia understood that disrupting the water supply would make things worse for both sides somehow.
Can somebody explain to me how? Why didn’t Ukraine block the water supply a year ago, or even 7 years ago, when they lost control of Crimea?
Video of what Russians claim was them destroying a Leopard tank:
Was gonna say, not sure what it is, but it’s not a tank.
What did they hit the vehicle with? A guided rocket of some sort?
The tweet says anti-tank guided missiles from a Ka-52 attack helicopter.
Ah, thanks. The phrase “ATGM from Ka-52” meant nothing to me without explanation.
”ATGM" == “Anti-Tank Guided Missile”
“Ka-52” == Kamov Ka-52 Alligator, Russian attack helicopter from the Kamov helicopter manufacturer.
There will not be a quiz on this matter.
Yesterday:
Coincidence?
(John Deere make agricultural vehicles)
I would imagine depriving 2 million civilians of drinking water is considered a humanitarian travesty, and would have lost Ukraine a lot of international support.
Flooding:
Here’s another article about the dam. Russians, Ukrainians and just damage getting worse are all blamed. Thankfully the nuclear plants don’t seem to be in any current danger.