On December 29, 2022, the Washington Post published an interview with Maj. Gen. Andriy Kovalchuk, the initial commander of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kherson region.
During the Ukrainian counteroffensive of autumn 2022, the Nova Kakhovka Dam and the road running along the top of it was targeted with US-supplied M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — or HIMARS launchers, which have a range of 50 miles .
The road was quickly rendered impassable, but the Russians kept rebuilding crossings in order to resupply their forces. “There were moments when we turned off their supply lines completely, and they still managed to build crossings,” Kovalchuk said.
The Ukrainians were forced to consider more drastic steps.
As the Post reports:
"Kovalchuk considered flooding the river. The Ukrainians, he said, even conducted a test strike with a HIMARS launcher on one of the floodgates at the Nova Kakhovka dam, making three holes in the metal to see if the Dnieper’s water could be raised enough to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages.
"The test was a success, Kovalchuk said, but the step remained a last resort. He held off."
The Ukrainians destroyed the dam. Their failing "counteroffensive" meant it was time to resort to "the last resort".
Kiev had every reason to do it, and they had NO reason to care about the lives and livelihoods of Russian people living on Russian land.
What the Azovs were doing in Donbas from 2014-2022 should provide ample proof of what Kiev thinks about its citizens living in the Russian areas like Kherson.
And of course they FINALLY got to cut off the water to Crimea, something they had been doing - or trying to do - for 9 years.
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