Evidence is growing that the Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up, after the publication of seismic data showing there was a blast at the site in the early hours of Tuesday.
Norsar, the Norwegian Seismic Array, said signals from a regional station in Romania pointed to an explosion at 2.54am. Norsar did not draw conclusions on who was responsible.
The New York Times quoted a senior Biden administration official as saying US spy satellites had also detected an explosion at the dam just before its collapse, but adding that US intelligence analysts still had not concluded who caused the explosion or exactly what happened.
The Ukrainian government has said Russian occupying forces had control of the hydroelectric infrastructure on top of the dam and were using it as a garrison at the time of the blast. Explosive experts have said it would be much easier to blow up the dam from within than by firing on it from a distance.
On Friday morning, the Ukrainian security service published what it claimed was an intercepted phone call proving Russian responsibility for blowing up the dam on Tuesday.
The SBU posted on Telegram a recording of a 90-second phone conversation and claimed it was between two “occupiers”, the word normally used by Ukrainian officials for Russian soldiers.
The two men discuss the destruction of the dam, and one of them assumes it was carried out by Ukrainians but the other speaker corrects him, saying “our guys did it”.
“Our saboteur group is there. They wanted to cause fear with this dam. It did not go according to the plan. More than they planned,” the speaker said.
The authenticity of the call could not be verified. The SBU statement did not identify the speakers, nor indicate the time or place the call was supposed to have taken place. An SBU source said the call was intercepted on Thursday and that more details could not be provided as the recording was part of a criminal investigation.
Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration that Kyiv’s account of the dam’s destruction, that it was blown up from inside by Russian forces, has not so far been confirmed by US, UK or other intelligence agencies.
Ihor Syrota, the director general of the Ukrainian hydroelectric power company Ukrhydroenergo, said suggestions that the dam could have been destroyed by Ukrainian shelling or catastrophic structural failure were Russian propaganda.
“The plant was designed to withstand a nuclear strike,” Syrota told the Guardian in an interview in Kyiv. “To destroy the plant from the outside, at least three aircraft bombs, each of 500kg, would have had to be dropped on the same spot. The station was blown up from the inside.”
He added: “They brought hundreds of kilograms of explosives there. Ukraine reported last year that the station was mined. The Russians were just waiting for the right day to blow it up.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy held an online meeting with environmental activists from around the world to establish an expert group to rally support to help recover from the ecological disaster caused by the dam’s destruction.
“Tens of thousands of birds and at least 20,000 wild animals are at risk of death,” the Ukrainian president said. “Obviously, the Kakhovka reservoir has been turned into a huge graveyard for millions of living beings.”
He said it was becoming a global problem as contaminated flood waters flowed into the Black Sea.
In his nightly video address, recorded on a train after a visit to the flood zone, Zelenskiy thanked Ukrainian troops and repeated Kyiv’s earlier claims of military success around the city of Bakhmut.
He did not discuss the southern front, which so far appears to be the main focus of Ukraine’s emerging counteroffensive. “We see every detail. But it’s not time to talk about it today,” he said.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said battles on the southern front were continuing for the settlement of Velyka Novosilka, and Russian troops were mounting an “active defence” of the town of Orikhiv.
Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukraine had launched its counteroffensive but that Russian lines had held firm.
“It can be said for sure that the Ukrainian offensive has begun; this is evident by their use of strategic reserves,” the Russian president told journalists at a conference in Sochi.
“Ukrainian troops did not achieve their goals in any sector, thanks to the courage of Russian soldiers, proper organisation of troops,” he said. Though he added that Kyiv still had offensive potential.
Putin also said Russia was lacking modern weapons but that the country’s arms industry was developing quickly.
Russian official sources and military bloggers reported intense fighting overnight and early on Friday around the village of Lobkove, south of the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, and Orikhiv, about 30 miles farther east along the front.
Unverified videos posted online showed a German-made Leopard tank and US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles damaged and abandoned on the battlefield. Unconfirmed accounts from Russian military bloggers portray only small advances by Ukrainian forces at a high cost in casualties and loss of equipment.
“Ukrainian forces conducted a limited but still significant attack in western Zaporizhzhia oblast on the night of June 7 to 8,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported. “Russian forces apparently defended against this attack in a doctrinally sound manner and had reportedly regained their initial positions as of June 8.
“Ukrainian forces penetrated the initial defensive lines, Russian forces pulled back to a second line of fortifications, and Russian reserves subsequently counterattacked to retake the initial line of defences,” ISW said.
