The dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station "was deliberately destroyed during the terrorist act on June 6, 2023," the deputies of the European Parliament concluded. According to their resolution, as reported by DW, the destruction of the dam resulted in widespread flooding, environmental disaster, ecocide in Ukraine, and constitutes a war crime.
The parliamentarians called on the European Commission and the EU countries to provide all necessary assistance in the flood zone, in particular equipment, drinking water and food, and supported the investigation of the International Criminal Court into the case of the destruction of the dam.
At the same time, the Russian side claims that the dam collapsed after a series of artillery strikes from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Here is what Vladimir Putin said about this:
“Well, it’s clear who is guilty, the Ukrainian side was striving for this. You know, I'm not going to say one hundred percent things that I'm not sure about, because by and large we did not record large explosions before the destruction occurred, at least that's how I was reported. But they purposefully hit HIMARS many times at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, that's the point. Maybe they had some bookmark there, I don’t know now, maybe they once again added something insignificant there and destruction began.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, the station was blown up by the Russian army, Zelensky's adviser Mikhail Podolyak said earlier.
At the same time, OSINT researchers assumed that the destruction of the dam began before its breakthrough on June 6 and the cause of the disaster was the damage received earlier and the improper operation of the hydroelectric power station by the Russian administration.
On June 8, it was reported that Norwegian scientists recorded seismic tremors, confirming that the destruction of the hydroelectric power station was the result of an explosion. A day later, it became known that American spy satellites also recorded an explosion at the dam shortly before its collapse.