“The brutality of World War II is back”: how an expert assesses the dam blast After the knife attack, France celebrates Henri, the “hero with the backpack”

Mr. Galland, how do you qualify blowing up the Kachowka Dam?
Frank Galland: To me it is a catastrophe, a tragedy with enormous consequences – humanitarian, environmental and economic. The Kachowka Dam is one of the largest in Eastern Europe. Even if the war miraculously ended tomorrow, the effects of the dam breaking would be felt for decades to come. A flood causes enormous damage to the entire infrastructure, to houses, power lines, bridges, rails. Oil is released from tanks and gas stations, as well as waste water. Since there are also anti-personnel mines floating in the water, there is a danger to life. It is the first time since the world wars that the population has been attacked through vital infrastructure. Reconstruction will take years.

How far will the damage go?
In the city of Kherson, 60 kilometers downriver, where 300,000 people lived before the war, the water level continues to rise. He should be up to five feet soon, with all the long-term damage. The consequences of breaking the dam will be felt in the Black Sea. Marine ecosystems will be severely affected. This applies to the area around the Crimean island and therefore also affects Russians, but also countries bordering the Black Sea, such as Romania and Bulgaria.​

Did the explosion of the dam add a new dimension to the war, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said?
If anything, it’s a new level of escalation — and that in a high-intensity conflict that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives. The question inevitably arises: if someone causes a humanitarian and environmental disaster of this magnitude without urgent military necessity, what is he still capable of? An attack on a nuclear power plant?​

Is the destruction of the dam a war crime?
Without a doubt, because it massively violates international law, it destroys history. I remember a 1951 Soviet stamp from a series celebrating great works of communism. The dam on the Dnieper built under Khrushchev, including the hydroelectric power station, was considered an exceptional, emblematic structure that supplied water to the agriculture of southern Ukraine and also Crimea. That’s all over now, reduced to zero. Here Ukraine is set back 80 years. This is really a disaster.​

The authorship is still unclear. According to one theory, it could have been an accident carelessly caused by Russians attempting to blow up a blocked floodgate.
There is no certainty about this either. What is certain is that the demolition of such a dam is not an amateur job. Only an army, or at least a well-equipped group, can do that. Turkish President Erdogan calls for an international commission of inquiry. We shall see.

So let’s ask who benefits from crime…
Militarily, another vital infrastructure of Ukraine was hit. We know that Russia has been targeting power plants since last fall, but also power plants and power lines, as well as drinking water production stations. These are deliberate acts of war against the civilian population and are in complete contradiction to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols.​

Are dam destructions specifically mentioned?
Article 15 specifically prohibits attacking dams, other dams and nuclear power plants. And that hasn’t happened since the end of World War II, at least not in such a targeted and premeditated manner. During the Vietnam War, the Americans used aerial bombardments on their North Vietnamese enemy’s earthworks, causing direct and indirect damage. inflicted on the structures. But that has nothing to do with the events surrounding the Ukrainian dam: it was deliberately destroyed with explosives or precision weapons, causing maximum damage.​

During the Iraq War a few years ago, not even the Islamic State terror militia went so far as to destroy vital reservoirs.
The IS could have blown up the Saddam Dam over the two million city of Mosul, triggering a tsunami that hit the city with countless deaths. It has not come to that. This largest dam in the country, which supplies 45 percent of the national electricity, is still standing.​

Does the demolition of the dam therefore correspond more closely to the practice of the Second World War?
Yes indeed. In 1943, the British Royal Air Force destroyed two dams on the rivers Möhne and Eder with specially developed roller bombs, which caused enormous damage up to 80 kilometers below the dam. Several thousand people died. Churchill later said it was one of his most difficult wartime orders.​

Putin should have less pangs of conscience.
Not to forget, at that time there was a world war in which all resources were used. It was about freeing the world from the Nazi yoke. As is well known, this turned out to be so difficult that the Americans eventually even detonated atomic bombs over Japan. What happened to the Germans in this dam destruction was tragic, there is no doubt about it. Now the whole thing is being repeated in southern Ukraine. War returns to Europe, and with it the brutality of World War II.​

Does the collapse of the dam suggest that the Russians feel pressured to resort to such extreme measures?
An international investigation will determine whether it was the Russians. And if so, the question arises: who gave the order, who carried it out? And: were Wagner mercenaries involved, the General Staff, the Kremlin? This affair reminds me of the crash of the MH17 plane. The trial clarified responsibility and made it clear that it was Russian separatists in Donbas who fired on the civilian plane, killing passengers and crew.​

Can the Russians hope for any military advantage in blowing up the dam?
Yes, because the tidal wave creates a real water barrier at the front, which is almost insurmountable over an area of ​​about 100 square kilometers. The Ukrainians can hardly cross the Dnieper anymore; in addition, army troops must help evacuate the population. This gives the Russians a natural defense line of almost 100 kilometers on the 700 kilometer long front. (aargauerzeitung.ch)​