​The photo taken by a Ukrainian drone on May 28, which shows a car with explosives parked on the Kakhovskaya dam dam, will become additional proof that Russia is behind the destruction of the HPP, reports Guardian.

A photo of a car apparently loaded with explosives parked on the Kakhovskaya Dam in Ukraine shortly before it collapsed was released by the Associated Press.

The image shows a white car with the roof cut away to reveal large barrels inside, one of which has a mine attached to the hood. A cable runs from the barrel to the river bank controlled by Russian troops. It seems that a cable is being pulled from the barrel to the bank of the river occupied by Russian troops.

A Ukrainian special forces communications official told The Associated Press that he believed the vehicle was there to stop any Ukrainian advance on the dam and to boost a planned explosion that was to take place near the engine room.

More than 11,000 people were evacuated after a dam collapsed on June 6, flooding lands downstream. On Monday, the death toll was 52. Russian officials said 35 people were killed in Kherson districts under its control, while the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported 17 dead and 31 missing.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of undermining the dam, causing an environmental and human disaster.

Ukrainian officials told the Associated Press that Russian troops had set up a firing position on the dam shortly before the explosion.

And President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the dam was mined by Russia. During a recent meeting, Vladimir Putin told military bloggers that he had no interest in damaging the dam that flooded Russian-controlled territory.

However, he acknowledged that Ukraine’s offensive plans could be affected by the flooding of the terrain that Ukrainian troops would have to cross to gain access to the Moscow-controlled parts of Kherson.

The probable cause is an explosion in a tunnel under a Soviet-era dam

The New York Times reported over the weekend that it had found evidence that an explosive device in a tunnel that runs through the concrete foundation of a Soviet-era dam was detonated on June 6, destroying the structure.

The evidence clearly indicates that the dam was blown up by an explosion provoked by Russia in the part it controls, The New York Times reports, News.ro reports.

The concrete base of the hydroelectric power station, located below the water level and having a height of 20 meters and a width of up to 40 meters, withstood most of the load of the dam. Nine days after the collapse of the dam, the user “War Whistleblower” published a video of the aftermath of the disaster, according to the New York Times: where the dam was destroyed, no concrete base was visible, and the part of the dam that escaped the destruction had only the upper part.

Inside the concrete base was a technical tunnel that could be accessed from the engine room, which was under Russian control. The tunnel is marked on plans that New York Times journalists say they have seen, Ukrainian publication Nexta also writes.

“Conclusion with a degree of reliability over 80%”

In addition, a group of experts assisting Ukrainian prosecutors in the investigation said on Friday that it was “highly likely” that the collapse of the Kakhovskaya Dam in southern Ukraine was caused by explosives planted by the Russians.

Experts from the international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance, which supports efforts to prosecute those guilty of crimes committed in Ukraine, visited the Kherson region on June 10-11 together with the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and a team of the International Criminal Service. court.

“Evidence and analysis of available information, which includes seismic sensors and discussions with leading collapse experts, indicate that there is a high probability that the collapse was caused by pre-planted explosives at vital points in the dam’s structure,” it said. a summary of preliminary findings from the law firm’s team seen by Reuters.

Yusuf Syed Khan, a senior lawyer at Global Rights Compliance who participated in the Kherson field mission, said that this conclusion that the dam was blown up by the Russian side with pre-planted explosives “is at least 80% predictable.”

This discovery is based not only on seismic sensors and one of the leading providers of open-source information, but also on patterns of attacks and other strikes that we have documented,” he said in an interview. They also include previous attacks on critical infrastructure water, including plants and pipelines, he said.

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