"It was shocking to see the video of the damaged dam, and more shocking to realize not just the potential for downstream damage to people but the damage that may have been done to water supplies needed to cool the Zaporozhye Nuclear Plant," retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik. "Like many Americans, I may have underestimated the Ukrainian leadership's desire to physically harm and destroy the Russian-controlled and populated regions in the east."
The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant's (HPP) dam was heavily hit on Tuesday morning by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, releasing a huge amount of water down the Dnepr River. The HPP is located five kilometers away from the city of Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region, which joined Russia along with other territories last year following a series of referendums. The destruction of the dam endangers 14 settlements and 22,000 residents; may create irrigation and water feed problems for Crimea and other southern Russian regions; and poses a risk to the cooling system of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), controlled by Russia.
Kwiatkowski drew attention to the fact that Kiev's attack on the HPP was preceded by months of the Ukrainian military attacks against the Russian-held Zaporozhye NPP, despite the obvious risk of a nuclear meltdown, impacting the region and beyond.
"Kiev has since has become even more radical, aiming to directly destroy agricultural production, urban populations and industry, transportation, and energy supply," the retired lieutenant colonel said. "The destruction of part of the dam in Kakhovka combines Ukrainian intent in all four of these aims with a single set of strikes."
According to the former Pentagon analyst, "this attack, like other recent actions of Ukraine, have all the characteristics of a terror attack, impacting civilians and civilian life, and not geared towards recovering lost land or assets, but destroying them."
Per Kwiatkowski, the attack on the Kakhovka HPP is the logical continuation of Ukraine's recent terror attacks on Russia's Belgorod region; and increased drone attacks on Russian cities, including Moscow, ahead of the much discussed Ukrainian "counteroffensive."
Kiev Has Record of Terror Attacks on Russia and US Media is Aware of That
Earlier, the Kiev regime resorted to bombing attacks against on the Crimean Bridge, connecting the Russian peninsula and the mainland, Russia’s Saki Air Base on the western coast of Crimea, December 2022 drone strikes against Russian military bases in Ryazan and Engels, and an August 2022 car bomb that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin.
At the time, Washington distanced itself from the attacks, claiming that Kiev is "not always transparent with their American counterparts about their military operations," which "have frustrated US officials," as per US mainstream media reports.
As per another document, cited by the media, Zelensky "expressed concern" that "Ukraine does not have long-range missiles capable of reaching Russian troop deployments in Russia nor anything with which to attack them"; he then "suggested that Ukraine attack unspecified deployment locations in Rostov," a western Russian city. The US media outlet remarked that the troves "reveal a leader with aggressive instincts that sharply contrast with his public-facing image as the calm and stoic statesman."
Support for Kiev is Already Waning
Meanwhile, the Western mainstream press has jumped at the opportunity to point the finger at Russia once the Kiev regime blamed the destruction of the dam on Moscow. However, according to Kwiatkowski, there is not as much unity within the Pentagon ranks about the perception of what's going on in Ukraine as there was at the beginning of the conflict.
"Increasingly US intelligence is being allowed by the politicians and internationalists to assert what it actually knows, and some of this accurate information is finally being made available to Congress, media and decision-makers," the US military veteran said. "We see this in the aftermath of stories of returning American soldiers (in person or in coffins) from Ukraine, we see it in the recent leaks by Airman Jack Teixeira showing confirmation that the Pentagon understood the public numbers and reports in the US media were false, and that the Pentagon leadership was lying about the statistics and performance of the Ukrainian military and its political leadership."
She suspects that "the US security decision-makers are coming undone, and beginning to finger-point between the Biden appointees and the Pentagon professionals." There is also a group of US lawmakers which is publicly questioning Washington's support for the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, "in an era of tight budgets and economic downturns."
On top of that, Joe Biden's main competitors in the 2024 race, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Robert Kennedy Jr., "oppose the US proxy war in Ukraine," she added.
"I personally doubt that any of the Zelensky defenders and allies in Western capitals believe anything they say at this point, and doubling down on lies (when so much evidence to the contrary exists) is generally a political mistake," Kwiatkowski pointed out.
Destruction of Dam May Become Point of No Return for Kiev
When the dust settles and it is ultimately clear that the dam was destroyed by the Ukrainian military, both US neocons and the Kiev regime will find themselves between a rock and a hard place, according to the retired lieutenant colonel.
"My personal sense is that the US is and has been seeking a way to extricate itself from the insanity of the Kiev-Washington-neocon axis," Kwiatkowski said. "I suspect that Zelensky is very aware of this, as he has been facing serious snubs from erstwhile political allies in several recent international meetings of heads of state, and his best ally Joe Biden is increasingly viewed as feeble and one to fall away from early retirement."
"If the past is an indicator, the US will deny and obfuscate to protect Kiev and Zelensky; but this globally visible and fear-producing horror of a major dam break that kills or harms many innocent people could be enough for the adults left in Washington to see this as an opportunity to put the blame where it must be placed – the same guy who has wasted hundreds of billions of donated weapons, dollars and pounds, and is enriching himself and his cronies in a war that frankly has become almost comedic in its stupidity."
As per Kwiatkowski, the Ukrainian attack on the Kakhovka HPP "might be the tipping point for consolidated US political and military support for Kiev, and also be enough to finally get the European and NATO leaders to start listening to their own people."
"Unity among Western leadership and their populations regarding continued proxy war in Ukraine, against a nuclear armed and globally effective Russia is already waning, and become publicly debatable," the former Pentagon analyst underscored. "The fact and images of the broken dam creates a more widely shared and massive emotional condition in viewers outside of the conflict, that other Ukrainian attacks and actions have not created. While Ukrainian strategists and politicians believe that this emotional global reaction will be in their favor, common sense indicates that Ukraine's military is destroying lost property in a punitive retreat, and without regard for life or international norms."