U.S. satellites detect explosion at Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant before it collapses - NYT

US satellites detected an explosion at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region shortly before it collapsed. The satellites were equipped with infrared sensors that detected a thermal signal characteristic of a large explosion.

This was reported on Friday, June 9, by The New York Times, citing a senior official in the administration of US President Joe Biden. He said that US intelligence analysts were confident that the aggressor country Russia was behind the plant's explosion.

At the same time, he noted that the White House does not have convincing evidence of what happened, as a detailed investigation must be conducted.

The newspaper writes that engineers and munitions experts have said that a deliberate explosion inside the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam most likely caused its collapse. The destruction of the structure or an attack from outside the dam is theoretically possible, but they are confident that the hydroelectric power station was nevertheless blown up.

The journalists' source noted that there is also a possibility that previous damage to the dam or increased water pressure could have contributed to the collapse, but the most likely cause of the disaster is deliberate explosion.

InformNapalm, an international intelligence community, says that the data captured by US intelligence satellites completely refute the versions of various Russian and foreign OSINT bloggers who, on the day of the tragedy, tried to convince that the dam could have collapsed on its own due to "natural pressure" rather than due to its being blown up by Russian troops.

According to InformNapalm, the environmental and economic consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station for Ukraine can be equated to the consequences of the use of tactical nuclear weapons of 5-10 kilotons.

As a reminder, the day before, the Security Service of Ukraine published an intercepted conversation between the Russian military, which suggests that the Kakhovka HPP was blown up by a sabotage group of occupiers. The invaders wanted to blackmail Ukraine by blowing up the dam, but something went wrong, and as a result, they caused a man-made disaster in the south of our country.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said that it was impossible to start an investigation into the undermining of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam by the Russian occupation forces. While this territory is under the control of the aggressor, it will not be possible to do so.

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