Comments by "seneca983" (@seneca983) on "Russia Details Ukr Losses, Kakhovka Dam Destroyed to Enable Ukr Redeployment; Medvedev RU Offensive" video.

  1. "1) The Ukrainians by their own admission conducted experiments with HIMARS to determine the feasibility of destroying the dam and confirmed it was possible and could be conducted at any time to stop the Russian advances in Kherson and maroon its forces 2) The Ukrainians were reported to be considering attacking the dam with underwater drones giving having the same effect as the dambusters WW2 mission" However, they didn't do that back then when the advantage to Ukraine would seem to have been the greatest. That seems to indicate that they preferred to preserve the dam. Also, when they were bombarding the bridge going along the dam with HIMARS in preparation for the Kherson offensive they judiciously avoided damaging the dam by only hitting the southern end of the bridge where it curves away from the dam.
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  2.  @johnnafarrell3336  No, I did not. I typed it in the reply box. Well, I did copy-paste the part of the comment by OP (Jim Craig) that I quoted but the reply part was typed, not copy-pasted.
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  3. 36:05 Ukraine cannot have been raising the water level because it was Russia that was in control of the power station. They were the ones who decided to keep the sluice gates closed raising the water level. If the raising water level is somehow connected to the dam failure then that would seem to point to Russia rather than Ukraine.
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  4.  @michaelgnit8476  And like I said, evidence points to the Ukrainians wanting to preserve the dam, at least earlier.
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  5.  @515coldfire  The Russians deliberately filled the Kakhovka dam's reservoir by keeping the dam's sluice gates closed.
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  6.  @michaelgnit8476  "The Russian's [...] mine fields and defensive positions" They have far less need for those now. Washing away some minefields from the Left Bank doesn't seem to benefit Ukraine if they can't cross the Dnieper anyhow.
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  7.  @rogerhearn5243  They were shooting the bridge going along the dam with HIMARS and they were specifically targeting the section at the southern end of the bridge where it curves away from the dam. That would seem to indicate that they'd prefer to avoid damaging the dam if possible.
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