Hmm, well you bring up good points, but also we gonna find out soon enough
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
Based on historic charts, the dam has been kept at a high level not seen for a long time, even if the dam did collapse due to external force, Russia clearly has planned for it to be used strategically since they could always have opened the sluice gate to lower the danger level.
The gates were damaged in the multiple HIMARS attack Ukraine carried out on the dam last year. I mean, one of the reasons Russia used to justify pulling out of Kherson city was exactly the risk of Ukraine destroying the dam and having their forces in the city cut off and wiped out.
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One HIMARS strike was actually aimed at the sluice gate and not all of them.
From WA article:
Relevant passage:
The HIMARS strike occured before 6th of November.
A few days later as the Russians retreated surveillance footage from the dam showed a large explosion, which looks larger than a HIMARS strike. This occured on Nov 11.
Damage to one sluice gate from a single HIMARS strike would not disable all of the sluice gates, the later explosion did.
So Russia did close the sluice gates deliberately in anticipation of a flooding. Note that the sluice gates were closed after November when the strikes occured.
It has been confirmed the struck AD system was an IRIS-T. There was a launcher and radar nearby and the Russians went for the radar first
oooof
That will hurt even more the already weak AFU air defense.
Literally the most modern NATO SAM system by the way, a TRML-4D, shown to the public for the first time in 2018.
The first deliveries did not start until a year or two ago....
They are bringing their AD closer to frontline for the counter. With their soviets stocks nearly gone, the western versions are up.