Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebot
https://kyivindependent.com/national...-flood-kherson
Ukraine is well aware of Russia's plans, and those plans are catastrophic if they go ahead.
One of the main reasons for taking Kherson in the first place is to secure Crimea's water supply and control the dam which had water shut off after 2014's annexation. Blowing it up would flood / destroy Kherson as well as potentially kill hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian in the area (as well as any military).
For context the reservoir is as large as Lake Mead's current active volume (Hoover Dam) at 18km3. That's a lot of water
It would also flood the banks which Russia controls as well as permanently cut off Crimea's water supply. It's very much an insane scorched earth last resort should Russia go through with it, but unlike a nuke it would be unlikely for NATO to respond.
They have already proven that they will destroy dams just to cause mass civilian deaths, if Kherson is accepted lost and may lose control of the dam, they may pull the trigger.
|
while no one has gone broke betting on Russian stupidity in this conflict blowing the dam utterly dooms the Crimea, it leaves it with no water and makes Sevastopol and the other towns all but uninhabitable within a few years while doing nothing to prevent the fall of Maripol or the rest of the Oblast, I cant see it myself