Russian forces likely behind Ukrainian dam attack, investigation says

WASHINGTON — It is “highly likely that Russian forces deliberately destroyed” the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine, an international team of investigators said in a new report on Thursday.

“We found that the collapse of the dam was likely caused by the placement of pre-laid explosives at key points within its structure,” explains Catriona Murdoch, a lawyer and expert on hunger-related crime.

Murdoch, who was one of the first delegations to arrive on the scene, added that the attack on the dam could constitute a war crime.

Murdoch said: “Dams may not be attacked when the release would cause severe damage to civilians. Even valid military targets located on or near a dam cannot be attacked if the impact would deliberately cause severe damage to civilians. being attacked.”

Both Russia and Ukraine blamed the dam explosion entirely on the other.

The pre-dawn attack on a Russian-controlled dam triggered the worst ecological disaster in Ukrainian history since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. More than 80 settlements in the Kherson region were flooded and at least 27 people died, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.

Global Rights Compliance senior lawyer Yousuf Syed Khan, who was involved in the investigation, said the damage to the dam had caused a “terrible crime of hunger” in the Kherson region.

“The repercussions of this attack have undoubtedly been massive, far-reaching and multigenerational, as entire industries and livelihoods associated with agribusiness have been severely impacted,” Khan said.

The investigative team, made up of lawyers, military experts and researchers, said Russian troops also targeted flood evacuation points and restricted citizens from leaving areas of rising water.

The report was published by the Mobile Justice team, which is an integral part of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Groupfunded by the US State Department, EU and UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Offices.