LAHORE MIRROR (Monitoring Desk0 — Ukrainian troops witnessed Russian soldiers being swept up in floodwaters and fleeing the east bank of the Dnipro River after the collapse of the Nova Khakovka dam, an officer in Ukraine’s armed forces said. Many Russian troops were killed or wounded in the chaos, according to the officer.
Capt. Andrei Pidlisnyi said when the dam collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning “no one on the Russian side was able to get away. All the regiments the Russians had on that side were flooded.”
Pidlisnyi believed the Russians had deliberately attacked the dam to disrupt Ukrainian forces’ plans for an upcoming offensive.
Pidlisnyi explained that the lay of the land around the river meant that Russia’s military — located on the east bank — suffered serious impacts in the dam’s breach. His unit was able to watch the events unfold through the use of drones and troops on the scene.
The Russian units in harm’s way may not have been warned, possibly to maintain the element of surprise, Pidlisnyi said.
Ukraine’s government has echoed Pidlisnyi’s contention that Russia deliberately blew up the dam, while the Kremlin has said it was Kyiv’s forces that carried out an attack.
In fact, evidence to conclusively support either side’s claim is yet to emerge, while analysis of videos of the dam, and its subsequent breach, and in particular examination of satellite imagery, suggest the collapse could have been the result of structural failure since the Russians occupied the dam in March last year.
SOURCE: CNN
