Seismic data bolsters case Ukraine dam was blown up

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s security service claims to have intercepted a call proving a Russian ‘sabotage group’ was behind attack

Damage at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam at Nova Kakhovka, near Kherson (Energoatem/AFP/Getty)

Seismic data suggests the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was blown up – with an explosion detected around the time it collapsed

Ukraine's security service claims to have intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian "sabotage group" blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam early on Tuesday in the Kherson region.

Norway's research foundation Norsar said that data collected from regional seismic stations showed clear signals of an explosion. And US spy satellites detected an explosion at the dam, a US official was quoted as saying by The New York Times.

The destruction early on Tuesday of the facility - which had been in Russian hands since shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 - unleashed mass flooding, forcing thousands of residents to flee and wreaking environmental havoc.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) posted a one-and-a-half minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation, which featured two men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian.

The recording could not be independently verified.

Russia has accused Kyiv of destroying the dam. The Russian foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the SBU statement.

"They [The Ukrainians] didn't strike it. That was our sabotage group," said one of the men on the recording, described by the SBU as a Russian soldier. "They wanted to, like, scare [people] with that dam."

"It didn't go according to plan, and (they did) more than what they planned for."

The man also said "thousands" of animals had been killed at a "safari park" downstream as a result. The other man on the line expressed surprise at the soldier's assertion that Russian forces had destroyed the dam.

The SBU offered no further details of the conversation or its participants. It said it had opened a criminal investigation into war crimes and "ecocide".

"The interception by the SBU confirms that the Kakhovskaya HPP (Hydroelectric Power Plant) was blown up by a sabotage group of the occupiers," the SBU said in a statement. "The invaders wanted to blackmail Ukraine by blowing up the dam and staged a man-made disaster in the south of our country."

The US official said that satellites equipped with infrared sensors detected a heat signature consistent with a major explosion.

Norsar said in a statement that the data from one seismic station in Romania showed activity at 02:54 a.m. local time on Tuesday, indicating an explosion, and the timing coincides with media reports of the dam collapse.

Together with the power station, the dam helped provide electricity, irrigation and drinking water to southern Ukraine, including Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Water levels were high in the reservoir in the buildup to the explosion.

"By blowing up the Kakhovskaya HPP dam, the Russian Federation definitively proved that it is a threat to the entire civilised world," SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk was quoted as saying in its statement.

"Our task is to bring to justice not only the leaders of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's regime, but also the ordinary perpetrators of crimes," he said.

Western countries say they are still gathering evidence but argue that Ukraine would have no reason to inflict such a devastating disaster on itself, especially right as its forces were shifting onto the attack.

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate homes flooded in the wake of the dam's collapse. Vast nature preserves have been wiped out and the destruction to irrigation systems is likely to cripple agriculture across much of southern Ukraine for decades. Kyiv said at least four people had died and 13 were missing.

In Hola Prystan on the Russian-occupied side of the river, rescuers evacuated residents in rubber dinghies. Villagers carried pets or small children to safety.

"Our house was carried away by a torrent of water," said a woman who gave her name as Oksana, being evacuated in a boat with her teenage daughter and their two dogs.

Some relatives of people in Russian-controlled flooded areas said their loved ones were still stuck on roofs with dwindling food supplies. The United Nations has no access to those areas, its Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine Denise Brown said, adding that some 17,000 people were affected in Ukrainian-controlled areas, with numbers changing "by the minute".

The river divides the two sides, which accuse each other of shelling across it, interfering with rescue efforts. The Kremlin said Ukrainian shelling had killed people including a pregnant woman. It provided no evidence.

Reuters