Russia and Ukraine

[Pat Mustard]

It was going to happen, sooner or later, if not by explosives then because the russians holding it simply weren't communicating with the rest of the lock and turbine operators on the system, being held by ukraine.  It does russia no favors from a military or occupation standpoint.  It's de-mining their side of the dnipro and threatening crimean water supplies.  

The backstory here is that russian forces believe they're being attacked everywhere all at once by nato supersoldiers.  Russian telegram is lit up with fabulist conflicting reports - ranging from the total destruction of the ukrainian army to an ongoing drive that may not stop until it reaches fucking moscow, lol.  I wouldn't put it passed some cut-off field promoted officer blowing it in a panic outside of any orders and running for his life.

I reckon the order to blow came from on high, but the soldiers setting up the site weren't competent to set it up enough to do what they want. Russian reporting on the blow were originally crowing about a "successful action which stopped 'Ukrainian nazis' from crossing the river and attacking". When they realised they'd blown a big hole in the dam and released all the water, causing all their defensive positions to be washed away and all their mines to be removed, the Russian media then started to blame "Ukrainian shelling" for the dam going.

No way would Russian media be cook a hoop about a panicked blow by an over-promoted eejit who just shat his pants.