AMSTERDAM, June 16 (Portal) – It was “highly likely” that the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was caused by Russian-planted explosives, a team of legal experts helping Ukrainian prosecutors in their investigation said in preliminary reports Results released on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of destroying the Kakhovka Dam as a Western-backed tactic to escalate the conflict.
Ukraine is investigating the blast as a war crime and possible criminal environmental destruction or “ecocide.”
The huge Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, under Russian control since the February 24 invasion, was breached in the early hours of June 6, causing flooding to engulf part of the battlefield in southern Ukraine, destroying farmland and water supplies large part of the population was interrupted.
Experts from the international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance, which implements Western-backed efforts to promote accountability for atrocities in Ukraine, visited the Kherson region June 10-11 along with Ukraine’s Attorney General and a team from the International Criminal Court.
“The evidence and analysis of available information – including seismic sensors and interviews with leading demolition experts – indicate that there is a high likelihood that the destruction was caused by pre-placed explosives at critical points within the structure of the dam,” it said in a summary Preliminary findings from the law firm’s team, seen by Portal, said.
Global Rights Compliance lead attorney Yousuf Syed Khan, who participated in the field mission to Kherson, said the finding that the dam was blown up by the Russian side with pre-placed explosives was “an 80%+ finding.”
[1/4] A view shows a flooded area after the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam, during Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Portal/Oleksandr Klymenko/File Photo
The finding is based “not only on seismic sensors and one of the leading open source intelligence providers, but also on attack patterns and other attacks that we have documented,” he said in an interview. These included previous attacks on critical water infrastructure, including installations and pipelines, he said.
They rejected the theory that a catastrophic dam failure could have been caused by mismanagement alone.
The dam’s destruction and impact on Kachowka Reservoir and the surrounding area created conditions that investigators said could constitute a hunger crime if targeted at “an object essential to the survival of civilians,” Khan said.
The attack could be part of a broader crime against humanity, but the group hasn’t made that decision yet.
The intentional attack on a hydroelectric dam could constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law because it would be presumed to be for civilian purposes unless there was a valid military target, said British lawyer Catriona Murdoch, who is leading the investigation of the mobile justice team, in a statement.
“Even in the highly unlikely scenario that the dam, or even the area nearby, constituted a valid military target comparable to the digging of the dam, it is still afforded enhanced protection under international humanitarian law,” she said.
The ICC, the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal, is also investigating attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, which may violate international law.
Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Edited by Philippa Fletcher
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