Crossing the Dnieper would have been “really bad” for Kiev’s forces, the Russian president said
Ukraine was to blame for the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, which helped its soldiers avoid a battlefield bloodbath, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
“It is clear who is to blame. The Ukrainian side was aiming for this,” Putin told the war correspondents gathered at the Kremlin. While no large explosions were recorded before the dam collapsed, Kiev’s forces had repeatedly targeted it with US-supplied HIMARS rockets, in an effort to destroy it and cause the Dnieper to flood downstream, he added.
“Unfortunately – this may sound strange, but still – unfortunately, this thwarted their counteroffensive in this direction. Why unfortunately? Because it would’ve been better if they attacked there. Better for us, because it would’ve been very bad for them to attack there. But since the flood occurred, then, accordingly, the…