Russia withdrew troops for Kakhovka HPP shortly before the explosion – Budanov
Just half an hour before the Kakhovka
hydroelectric power plant (HPP) explosion, a Russian unit stationed there was
urgently ordered to evacuate, Ukrainian Military Intelligence chief Kyrylo
Budanov told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on June 20. Other enemy units were
unaware of the impending disaster.
Russia deliberately committed this act of ecocide and created a man-made disaster, according to Budanov.
“All rumors and suggestions to the contrary do not reflect reality,” said Budanov.
“Numerous facts demonstrate exactly how it unfolded. Notably, half an hour before the attack, a unit at the Kakhovka HPP was instructed over radio to quickly gather and leave the premises.”
“Concurrently, a group of (Russian) special forces arrived and the events unfolded as they did... One of the vehicles (suspected by journalists to carry an explosive device) indeed belonged to them.”
The head of Ukrainian military intelligence added that all units of Russian forces that were nearby really didn't know about the terrorist attack, so the destruction of the dam "caught them by surprise."
Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, a spokesperson for the State Emergency Service, announced on June 20 that the main evacuation efforts for residents of Kherson Oblast affected by the HPP explosion had been completed. The incident resulted in 818 flooded houses and four flooded settlements on the right bank of the Dnipro. On the temporarily occupied left bank, 17 settlements remain flooded.
During the night of June 6, Russian forces, which have occupied the town of Nova Kakhovka for over a year, exploded the dam, completely or partially flooding downstream cities and towns along the Dnipro River, including the regional capital of Kherson.
Ukraine began evacuating the population from the government-controlled west bank of the Kherson Oblast, while a catastrophe unfolded on the occupied east bank, which suffered much more from the flooding due its lowered elevation. As a result of the Russians' exploding the dam, there are dead and wounded, though the exact numbers are as yet unconfirmed.
The Prosecutor General's Office launched an investigation under the article of ecocide, and Ukraine appealed to the International Criminal Court.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Russian attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.
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