MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee is working to identify Ukrainian officers, who are responsible for the attack on the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant (HPP), the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has told TASS in an interview.
"A number of forensic examinations are now being carried out. Members of the Ukrainian armed groups, responsible for this crime, are being identified," he said.
In his words, investigators and forensic experts have already examined the scene.
"The damage has been documented. At present, an effort is under way to assess the damage inflicted by the flooding of populated areas that occurred as a result of the dam’s collapse and to document those grave consequences," Bastrykin added.
On the morning of June 6, the Ukrainian military launched a missile attack on the Kakhovka HPP, which resulted in the destruction of gate sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. Water levels in Novaya Kakhovka rose to 12 meters, but now the water is subsiding. There are 35 communities in the flood zone. People are being evacuated from flooded areas. According to the latest data, thirty-eight people have died and 115 have been hospitalized. The destruction of the hydropower plant has caused serious environmental damage with farmlands along the Dnieper River being washed away. Additionally, there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal may run low and become too shallow.
Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the strike on the Kakhovka dam as an act of deliberate sabotage by Ukrainian forces, adding that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for its consequences.