The German press comments on the turn of the war after the explosion of the dam at Nova Kahofka.

Yesterday (06/06), the large hydroelectric dam in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson, Ukraine, burst causing a huge amount of water to leak and many nearby settlements to start evacuation procedures. “Many say with ease that war can be planned, but unfortunately this is only true until the first shot is fired,” commented the Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on the incident.

[…] The blowing up of the Kahofka Dam was not necessarily unexpected and it remains unclear who destroyed the dam. But the huge masses of water flowing in from the dam’s debris, […] they completely change the battlefield. Flooded southern Ukraine is turning into an almost impassable terrain for tanks and howitzers.

This fact indicates that the Russians are responsible for the destruction of the dam. If the Ukrainians intended to make a surprise advance across the Dnieper into Russian-held Crimea near the Kakhovka Dam, or at least cut the land bridge to the Sea of ​​Azov, that will now be difficult. But did the Ukrainians themselves want to cut off the Dnieper water from Crimea and thus put pressure on the Kremlin?”

For its part, however, the tageszeitung seems much more certain about Russia’s guilt, adding that “the blowing up of the dam is an indication that Russia expects to be defeated. If Putin believed in continued Russian rule in southern Ukraine, he would not submerge the region, nor cut off the water supply to Crimea. As is often the case, Russia’s goal is to wipe Ukraine off the map, either by occupying or simply destroying it. The answer to this can only be stronger than ever. Ukraine must win this war and the Putin regime must disappear. Now, there is no going back.”