Tragic war crime as Nova Kakhovka dam is blown up. Who did it & why as Russia, Ukraine trade charges

foreign [Music] documents carefully board on the Ukrainian front following the Russian invasion of Ukraine has seemed to be still mated now for several months and that is the reason we haven't talked about it very much because when a war gets still mitted I know it's a terrible thing to say that people are lobbing shells at each other or carrying out little actions here and there it does cause still cause enormous amount of human misery and damage but it doesn't become a story so what do we talk about that war that war has now had one major event I will not say it's a turning point in the war in the sense of one side getting an upper hand over the other but it's a turning point only to the extent that something unprecedented in the history of Modern Warfare has happened that is a major Dam a hydroelectric Dam in this case with a huge reservoir of water has been either blown up blown up from inside or blown up from outside we don't know but definitely this Dam has been destroyed this is the Nova kakovkar Dam the dam is very big I will tell you something more about the dam and there will be debates about who has taken it down that means was it blown up from inside which means explosives or huge explosive charges were placed underneath it it's a large Dam it will not it can't be blown up with a with a normal IED or a hand grenade or a bunch of grenades it needs a humongous chart it was a Dam built to survive a nuclear attack from the top remember so whatever has happened had to happen at least technically from lower down from within from deep down deep down the big explosion the boom takes a dam out now blowing up a dam in war time what happens is it a legitimate Target in war no it is not a legitimate Target so while we will keep on debating who was responsible who destroyed the dam and dressed will blame the ukrainians and ukrainians will blame the Russians and the friends of ukrainians will blame the Russians also that is most of the western world I don't know how many friends of the Russians there aren't aren't that many will speak up and those that seem sort of neutral that is China which is quite neutral India which is at least vocally or verbally neutral in terms of substance it is not that neutral right but at the same because India is a member of the quad and quad has included in one of its joint statements a para which is very similar to United Nations resolutions asking Russia to vacate from ukraines using pretty much the same language without naming anybody so I will not say India is neutral neutral but reasonably neutral so these countries will not speak up on behalf of Russia and blame Ukraine but if you see the media if you see the media media that we read most of all that is the so-called quote-unquote Western media right that is also seen as pro-ukraine in that you see a lot of evidence lens and suggestion that this is it has been done by the Russians at the same time if you go to social media to tell telegram channels which have been giving you giving us videos and news on this war and the Russians are very active there Russian State Russian disinformation machinery and also Russian information Machinery that's legitimate they are all very active there they would suggest that the ukrainians have done it so first of all first of all I'll tell you about the laws of War and why why this is not a legitimate targeted anymore so whoever has done it is guilty of a major war crime once again we are not sitting in judgment over who's done it because we don't know yet I don't think the rest of the world knows yet also and in these situations I'm not even sure this will ever come out unlike the nordstream gas pipeline sabotage because that was a gas pipeline sabotage in the western media itself reported it was the American Media that reported that this was carried out by ukrainians a bunch of small bunch of ukrainians in an underwater boat say about six or eight ukrainians you can blow up a gas pipeline like that something like that happen but but on this one it will be tough nevertheless let me tell you what does international law say on this and I've picked it up from Igor sushko Igor sushko who's a Ukrainian American so he has a point of view which will be which will be pro-ukrainian so on his tweet he says Russia blowing up the dam is going to have severe consequences the ACT equates to the use of weapons of mass destruction under international law so I will distance myself from his insinuation or his allegation that the Russians have blown up this time if you take that aside which I'm taking it aside because I don't know and we don't know so we will not jump to conclusions and we we have no dog in the race right we are not on this side or that side there is a war going on hopefully the war will be over and anybody's territory that's been invaded or anybody's sovereignty that's been violated it will eventually be restored that is what you might say about the war but no sides and he goes on to say that dams like the nipro diamond Nova kakovka are protected by the laws of war and the Geneva Convention destroying it would be considered a weapon of mass destruction and an indiscriminate War crime article 56 of the 1977 additional protocol to Geneva conventions provides as follows and now I'm quoting from the article 56 of the additional protocol of Geneva conventions as inserted in 1977 and this protocol this para says I'll read the entire para to you it says and I quote from the convention works and installations containing dangerous forces namely dams dikes and nuclear electrical generating stations shall not be made the object of attack even where these objects are military objectives if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces is and consequence severe losses among the civilian population other military objectives located at or in the vicinity of these works or installations shall not be made the subject of attack if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces from the works or installations and consequent severe losses among the civilian population now see what has happened and you will see the pictures also of this destruction of this Dam all the consequences of the destruction of this time so first of all first of all it has released a dangerous Force which is enormous amounts of this water is Flowing this Dam the storage area by the way this is among the largest dams in the world among the largest storage areas in the world in fact it has more storage than any Dam in India and you can count the biggest ones in India Terry Dam bakra dam Naga to Sagar those are the big dams in India with a lot of storage this time has more storage because European rivers are big they are big enough for ship sized vessels to ply into them also the knee Pro is the fourth longest river in Europe it is 2200 kilometers of which about 921 kilometers flows through Ukraine so nepro begins near smallinsk in Russia you can see it on the map goes into Belarus and then comes sort of meanders and comes into Ukraine and then divides you into two halves the eastern half and the Western half the eastern half by now is mostly occupied the Russian forces the Western half of more than the Western half that is the bulk of Ukrainian territory about say 15 17 on the on the Eastern side 15 17 percent of the entire Ukrainian territory that's occupied by the Russians whereas the rest on the western side is with Ukraine this river is the dividing line between the two battling forces now in any Warfare it can be a mountain it can be mountain range a ridge a river a canal that usually becomes a dividing line so this has become the dividing line it's well known that Ukraine has been planning a big counter offensive at the Russian occupying forces and that counter offensive ultimately has to be launched across the river so this is the river that is now godzing out this enormous amounts of water in fact if I see the Russian accounts then in the Russian townships adjoining this Dam just after this Dam water levels have gone up from anything anything from seven and a half meters that is about 25 feet to 15 meters 15 meters is enough to drown an entire city 15 meter is more than 50 feet that that can drown an entire city and the water is coming out it's a reservoir spanning a land size spanning 2155 square kilometers it is that big you want to see how other reservoirs are Terry Dam which has a lot of water it's one of India's biggest dam is 52 kilometer Square this is 2155 kilometer Square maybe not all of it is so deep maybe some of it is shallow but it's a lot of water and that water level is now going down at the rate of 15 centimeters per hour so you can see with so such an expanse of water if the level is going down by 15 centimeters per hour how much water is Flowing down now 30 kilometers Downstream of this dam is also the city of harshon critical city of harshon which was the Russian forces only foothold on the West Bank of the Nipper River and they had occupied it for nearly eight months that's when in a series of bold counter-attacks from three sides ukrainians were able to liberate it we had in fact done an entire episode of Qatar clutter on this that was number 111 I am sharing a link with you please take a look now that City now gets flooded so which means if this isn't mine you won't have it too so that's one way of looking at it right maybe somebody wants to just out of spite do this and maybe somebody is also concerned that ukrainians are now starting their counter offensive and if you read the Western media there is some indication that something gets started in Sunday already so this is a way of blocking that counter-offensive because if the land on which your heavy forces were to move for counter offensive if those have all been flooded now then how do you stays at that counter offensive you then have to wait and you might have to wait for a very long time so those are things that are being said by the Ukrainian side or Ukraine supporters to to argue that the Russians to to gain more from this but there is a lot of analysis I see for example an article there's one explanation on why it may hurt the ukrainians more it says in the near term it's hurting the Ukrainian more said Mark cancerian a retired Marine officer and defense expert with the center for strategic and International Studies see csis and it may hurt them more because one it slows down or it blocks their counter offensive and second because it floods a lot of Ukraine's cropping areas that is where Ukraine's main export to the world is is food grain mostly wheat and sunflower seeds now if these areas are flooded that is like using food as an act of war that is the allegation from that side and that's when it hurts Ukraine more in the short run in the long run however the same article tells us it hurts Russia more and why it says the damage to the Russian control Dam would make it difficult for the Ukrainian troops to cross into Crimea and other Russian occupied cities in the south on the other hand it could eventually cut water off from Crimea and other parts of pressure Health territory flooding the region could also affect Russian defenses and Supply rules so Russian defense is the front line Russian defenses on the Eastern Bank of the river have all got flooded so Russian units are also having to withdraw from there because nobody likes to live in flooded trenches and bunkers at the same time Crimea which is the price and which is what the Russians occupied in 2014 sort of becoming a kind of causes belly which still continues that gets its water supply from Nipper river that water supply comes to a canal it's an old Canal called the north Crimean Canal that is the canal to which the ukrainians had stopped water supply after the Russians occupied it and then the Russians moved ahead finally and they open supplies to it once again now if this water is wasted there'll be no water left to go into this canal now the Russians are saying that they will not have a drinking water shortage in Crimea because the canal is still holding enough water and they can ration it for some time but the fact is it will be a big stress for them so this will be this will be quite damaging to them as well once again come back to the War crime aspect of it no matter who's done it now this para in article 56 of the additional protocol of Geneva conventions also says work and installations containing dangerous forces namely dams dikes and nuclear electrical generating stations so I told you earlier this affects a large civilian population So to that extent it fulfills the criteria of being a war crime under this clause also remember that this damn Reservoir because it's such a humongous Reservoir the biggest nuclear plant in Europe that is the japorigia nuclear power plant that is 5.7 gigawatt it's a humongous Nuclear Power Plant the cooling for that power plant is provided By the Waters of the reservoir of the Nova kakovka Dam so the management of the nuclear power plant says that right now there isn't that much concern International atomic energy Authority the regulator they've also said the Watchdog they've also said that right now we don't see a threat But ultimately this water will run out because once a dam is broken you can't fix it dam for years it's a Dam built in 1956 it's a dam filled with soil a little bit of rock also has a core of clay right so once Dam like this goes away you can't you can't just use engineering to build it look at the size of the Dam dam is not very tall these are not Himalayan dams Indian dams tend to be very tall only 30 meters tall but look at how wide it is it is 3273 meters that is almost 3.3 kilometers wide damn like that goes the way you can't just build it in no type that means the loss of this water will carry on for a long time and how much water it is this Reservoir holds 15 million acre feet of water you want to see it on another scale it's very difficult for me to calculate and tell you what is what it will be 18 cubic kilometers of water it's a lot of water suffice it to see it as maybe more than twice as much water as bakra Mangal if you look at the listing of the 50 biggest Reservoir Dam reservoirs in the world comes at 48 right so it's not among the biggest biggest 10 or 15 those are first one is in Zimbabwe then America Canada Russia there are lots of them it is the 48th and remember in the first 50 no Indian Dam even features no Terry no bakra no nagarden Sagar that is for the amount of water it holds so it still holds among the largest bodies of water in the world now both sides will continue blaming each other Russians are saying that this is Ukrainian sabotage ukrainians are saying Russian the terrorist Russians have done it videos have surfaced on telegram channels and elsewhere that show a big explosion that's taken place from within the dam that means charges were placed under the debt zelinski in October in a speech had said that the Russian forces have placed charges under the dam and they will blow it up anytime now the fact is that the dam has been under Russian occupation from very early days of the war because they took the Japanese nuclear power plant and then they took the dam also so it's been with them at the same time it's widely believed that ukrainians earlier carried out the destruction or the damage to that Nordstrom gas pipeline so once again in such a messy situation nobody quite knows what is happening but one one very curious thing is surfaced and this is again from a Ukrainian origin you journalist but working for political Europe and she's Nika melko zerova and the reason I'm quoting this is because there is a document attached to it and we've checked out the document it looks authentic and I'm sharing also screenshots of the document with you in your screen so she says that on May 31 Russian government passed a special legislation barring investigation at hazardous production facilities and accidents of hydraulic structures occurring due to hostilities and sabotage until 2028 so May 31 they passed a law that said if there is any sabotage or destruction at any hydraulic plants Etc it cannot be investigated until 2028. now why would they do it and at that to five days before this happens now one interpretation would be that they were going to do it so they were covering their official from any questioning later on but the other is we Russians are so stupid that if they are planning to do this then they will also pass a law at the same time accordingly so they'll be seen as Usual Suspects so we don't know what so what you see on your screen first clip is that particular para in the resolution in Russian the whole resolution will run through your screen as we talk we've got the whole document translated obviously by using internet we don't know Russian but I will read one key para to you and this is para 10 on page four it says until January 1 2028 technical investigation of accidents at hazardous production facilities and accidents of hydraulic structures that occurred as a result of military operations sabotage and terrorist Act is not carried out so did the Russians mean to cover their officials from any future action and thereby pass this law in a hurry or the second thing is if they knew they were going to carry out this action would they be so dumb as to pass this law that time we don't know what we know however is that this is a great human tragedy it's a tragedy not just for humans but also for Animals particularly for animals who are so dear to humans say pets for example so I'm sharing with you this video in the end to conclude this episode of cutter clutter which is a video shared by zelinski on Twitter so once again God is a bad thing and destruction of big infrastructure projects destruction of big civilian facilities in Warfare is a war crime who's done it we don't know is it

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Id: tG5o5LoY06I

Length: 19min 51sec (1191 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023