The huge Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region, parts of which are controlled by Russian forces, has suffered significant destruction, and while Kiev and Moscow insist on blaming each other for the bombing, three possible hypotheses emerge, according to a report in the Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
Newspaper editor Dennis Delbeck initially notes that the water level of the dam, built in 1955, has risen since February, sometimes being flooded.
In the first hypothesis, the writer wondered whether this height caused damage to the structure of the dam and thus this accident, which Delbeck ruled out despite what satellites showed of previous damage to the dam that caused the disappearance of the road that used to pass through it, a few days before the flow of water out of it.
He stressed that the hypothesis of deliberate action is the most likely, especially since local residents reported a powerful explosion last Tuesday at 2:50 a.m., just before the water began to flow.
The second hypothesis is that the dam was bombed, which Patrick Le Delieu, an expert at an organization that advises the French government on dams, comments: "It seems to me that it is unlikely that a bombing caused this destruction."
Patrick Le Delieu argues in the third hypothesis that what happened to this dam makes it likely that it could be destroyed by explosives placed in the structure of the building itself, but due to the lack of accurate information about the structure and condition of the building, it is not possible to make a decision in favor of one of these two hypotheses or the other.
Regarding the risks of this destruction on the safety of the Zabarizhya nuclear power plant, the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) provided reassuring information about the potential impact of the low level of the Kakhovka reservoir lake, as the level of filling of the basins adjacent to the plant gives it several weeks of cooling independence, especially since the six reactors of this plant have been suspended for several months.