Wars of aggression shouldn't just fail to secure more territory to the agressor. They should lose some.
The intl community should support Ukraine in getting a symbolic compensation as a part of Russian territory if very large reparations cannot be secured.
Attempts to recover such territory will cause the next compensation territory to be much larger, with even stronger military support guarantees from the west.
@EyalL Agreed! The aggressor should be worse off after the war.
#Ukraine will decide, but I would like to see an internationally supervised demilitarized zone, entirely on the #Russian side of the border, as a condition of the eventual lifting of sanctions.
The return of every kidnapped #Ukrainian child, and the surrender of every accused war criminal to an international #tribunal, should be preconditions for peace.
"If it can be proved that #Russia caused the collapse of the #Kakhovka dam in #Ukraine this month, it will be liable to prosecution — under both the Ukrainian criminal code, which prohibits ecocide, and under the environmental war crimes provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
🇷🇺 #Prigozhin says that 32,000 former prisoners have returned home after fighting in #Ukraine with his #Wagner Group military cartel. He says their recidivism rate is “80 times lower” than that among other prisoners released during Russia’s invasion.
‘Nobody Will Evacuate These Poor People’
Reaching flood victims in Russian-occupied #Ukraine is so dangerous that only Ukrainians will do it. Where are the international organizations that were made for this?
На Одещині прикордонники фіксують наслідки російського екоциду: море перетворюється на сміттєзвалище та кладовище тварин. У ньому плавають будинки, меблі, побутова техніка, автомобілі. Починається мор риб.
Разом з тим вода несе міни та боєприпаси. Просимо громадян не нехтувати власною безпекою та, при виявленні небезпечних предметів, звертатися до компетентних служб #RussiaIsATerroristState#RussianWarCrimes
Evidence grows of explosion at collapsed Ukraine dam
Evidence was growing on Friday that there was an explosion at the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine around the time it collapsed, according to Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence reports and seismic data from Norway.
Ukraine's security service said it had 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 U.S. spy satellites detected an explosion at the dam, a U.S. official was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Just a bit of a context of immense suffering and imminent death, unleashed on thousands and thousands of animals, with the blow up of #Kakhovka dam in #Ukraine.
Serge Marko, fighter with the 59th Separate Mechanised Brigade of #Ukraine who participated in partial demolition of Kozarovychi dam on Irpen river in March 2022^1:
To blow up the dam at Kozarovychi in March 2022, it took 1800 kg of TNT and explosive cords UR-77 were added. There were two explosions, the first one was 1000 kg of TNT, and it was not enough. For the second explosion the explosives were thrown directly into the crater from the first explosion, with UR-77 cords. Only the second explosion managed to damage the sluice gate, and the water went to Irpin. And this is was just the explosion of the lock. And the [Kozarovychi] dam itself is probably 700 metres long.
As a reminder, in March 2022 Ukrainian Armed Forces partially demolished a dam on the Irpen river, which resulted in shallow but large area flooding on the approach to Kyiv from the North. This forced Russians to use major roads only, with known consequences. Irpen river was later called “the saviour of Kyiv” by a numerous media. The story of this operation itself is interesting, as they carried nearly 2 tons of explosives to the dam on foot, details can be found in this interview.^2
That was how partial demolition of a relatively small dam Kozarovychi looked like. How does that compare to #Dnipro?
The Novokakhovka dam was 16.5 metres high. That’s the height of a five-storey building. It was almost 4 km long.
So how he describes the destruction of the Dnipro dam?
The Novokakhovka dam was destroyed from below. Apparently, the TNT was placed on the columns under water. Each column was mined separately, then they blew them up, the cumulative effect destroyed the columns underwater and the destruction started from the bottom. And then the water pressure simply destroyed the dam.
Could that be done by an Ukrainian sabotage group?
This kind of mining is a job for several days for a group of sappers. And I don’t think it’s possible that the Ukrainian saboteurs had carried 4 or more tonnes of explosives on their backs and managed to place them on the pillars, in the gateway, and the engine room of the facility, which was carefully guarded by the Russians.
And that the dam locks was operational and operated by Russians we know from Russian media who reported routine controlled water releases as recently as May 2023, as Russian administration boasted about repairing locks which were previously damaged.^3
Russian officials blamed Ukraine’s MLRS “Olkha” (see below). Is it a feasible version?
No missile can destroy this dam. Not even ten missiles. TBMs [theatre ballistic missile] are not designed to destroy such structures. That’s why the Russians don’t hit dams and large bridges. Because the TBM is designed to destroy headquarters and warehouses, and not to punch holes in structures made of tens of metres of concrete. Arrivals of such explosive missiles strong enough to have damaged the dam, would have been filmed by Russians. These could have not been concealed in any way and traces of hits from above would be visible. And there’s none!
Social media also speculated on damage imposed by last year’s HIMARS hits on the dam road. Could that have impacted the structure?
[The dam structure] should not be confused with the with the road bridge on the side of the dam, which is just a layer of asphalt on metal structures, and just remember how many missiles it needed [to even damage it].
He then concludes:
The dam was destroyed professionally. The goal was not only to raise the water (the destruction of the the lock would have been enough), but to destroy the dam completely. To create an environmental environmental disaster worth billions of dollars and make those territories uninhabitable for a long time. uninhabitable for a long time.
By the way, as I researched Russian sources for this post, their official narratives (as voiced by Peskov, not random military reporters) have now gone completely mundane^4:
Russia claims “Ukrainian shelling damaged the top layer of the dam which resulted in uncontrolled dumping of water”
Peskov says Ukraine, by blowing the dam, “wanted to cover the failure of their counteroffensive”
Shoigu said by blowing up the dam “Ukrainian forces relocated their troops and equipment to another location” (?)
Shoigu then reverses the logic by said Ukraine blew up the dam to prevent Russian offensive through Dnipro
This looks very much like traditional Russian information chaos strategy, as used in case of #MH17 and others: just throw enough mutually exclusive versions to put their audience into a kind of cognitive stupor, where they don’t believe any sources on the event.
🇷🇺 #Russia has abducted thousands of #Ukrainian civilians and locked them away with no criminal charges. Survivors describe rampant torture from prison guards. Meduza reports on these “civilian hostages,” as they’re known to human rights workers.
RT @United24media
We will never forget what Russia did to Mariupol and its people.
From burying loved ones in children's sandpits to escaping now knowing if you and your family will make it through—the people of Mariupol went through real hell at the hands of Russia. https://twitter.com/United24media/status/1651212669095903233