Russia holds West responsible for dam disaster – UN envoy

Sponsors encouraged Kiev to carry out its “terrorist” plans, the Russian envoy told the Security Council | Ukraine destroyed the Kakhovka dam in an “unthinkable crime” intended to harm Crimea for choosing Russia in 2014, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council on Tuesday. ● The Russian diplomat brought up US media reports documenting the Ukrainian attacks on the Kakhovka dam in December 2022, using the US-supplied HIMARS rockets. 💬 “Feeling its total impunity and being encouraged by Western sponsors, the Kiev regime decided to carry out this terrorist plot this time,” Nebenzia said. He noted that the Ukrainians had significantly increased the discharge of water from the Dnepropetrovsk hydroelectric power station, leading to even greater flooding downstream, “which indicates that this sabotage was planned in advance.” ● The terrorist act was intended to free up Ukrainian forces for the “counter-offensive” currently getting bogged down in Zaporozhye, while inflicting massive humanitarian damage on the population of Kherson Region, Nebenzia said. According to Nebenzia, Kiev 💬 “once again decided to take revenge on the Crimeans for their choice in favor of Russia and leave the population of Crimea without water.”  ● Nebenzia called the claims by Ukraine, US and EU officials that Russia was responsible for the dam’s destruction a 💬 “well-coordinated disinformation campaign,” in the same vein as previous allegations that Moscow was behind the shelling of its own people at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, or the destruction of Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. (Video taken from: metro.co.uk)

■ Putin labels Kakhovka dam attack ‘a barbaric act’ (RT.com)
■ Why does Kiev persistently hit the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant? (Yuri Gavrilov)
■ Preplanned Kakhovka Dam Destruction is Kiev's Crime Against Humanity and Nature (Sputnik News)
■ Kiev Regime Blows Up Kakhovka Dam In A Terrorist Attack To Distract From Its Failed “Spring Offensive”
■ People missing after Kakhovka dam destruction – city mayor (Sputnik News)
■ Kakhovka dam destruction: What you need to know (RT.com)
■ Waters to reach critical levels after destruction of Kakhovka dam (06/06/23)
■ Ukraine Blows Up Togliatti-Odessa Ammonia Pipeline in Kharkov Region (Sputnik News)

■ The Washington Post (December 29, 2022): 💬 "Russia had to arm and feed its forces via three crossings: the Antonovsky Bridge, the Antonovsky railway bridge and the Nova Kakhovka dam, part of a hydroelectric facility with a road running on top of it. ● The two bridges were targeted with U.S.-supplied M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — or HIMARS launchers, which have a range of 50 miles — and were quickly rendered impassable. ● 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."