In the early hours of Tuesday morning all was calm at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. It was a mild night. Nothing appeared to stir other than a few howling dogs. Earlier that day Russian troops had fired several dozen shells across the Dnipro River. They landed on towns and villages on the Ukrainian-controlled northern bank. A security guard was killed. Since Ukraine liberated the city of Kherson last year the war in southern Ukraine had fallen into a gruesome routine.
And then, suddenly, something terrible and extraordinary happened.
