Gernot Kramper (star) In the event of an explosion or sudden destruction of the barrage, tidal waves would be triggered. Depending on where that is, the effects would be catastrophic // Or a dam destroyed. It takes years to rebuild something like that. This is irreparable damage.
Hendrik Holdmann (stern) All crossings over the Dnepr, that is this big river that runs through Ukraine and is also crucial for this war, have been destroyed. Dams are now the focus of military operations. What makes you so special about this region?
Gernot Kramper (star) Yes, of course you have to know that the Dnieper cuts the whole country in half. And sometimes it’s wider and sometimes it’s really, really wide. It’s just a very big river, and this river is dammed up at various points to feed hydroelectric power plants. That is also quite natural, but it is different from the Elbe or the Rhine, for example, which have not been completely dammed somewhere to form huge barrages. This is also a Soviet-era idea. That was just based on cheap natural energy. But these barrages are also roads, which means you can drive over the dam. So this is not a bridge, so to speak, but a dam that can be driven on. These are these river crossings. And these barrages are interesting in several respects. One is that if there were an explosion or sudden destruction of the barrage, tidal waves would be released. Depending on where that is, the impact may or may not be catastrophic. And it depends a bit on how that goes, because not all areas directly on the river are densely built-up. But big catastrophes can happen. It definitely happened earlier when these dams were blown up, also on purpose. So I remind you of the British dam busters. The loss of the civilian population as a result of the blasting of the barriers was fully taken into account. So good, it hasn’t been done like this until now. It’s also quite possible to damage these dams and not break through them practically all at once and make a giant wave at the bottom. But of course they are now being targeted because the Russians are massively attacking the infrastructure, especially the power supply, and that consists of power plants and such nodes and relay stations. Junctions and relay stations, if they are hit exactly, can be repaired again because the West will help and because you can only patch them up with war engineering science. That means it doesn’t work like the DIN manual with all sorts of tests, but that it works somehow. As long as the spare parts come, that’s still imaginable. But if the power plants themselves – let’s take a gas-fired power plant or a coal-fired power plant – burn down completely because of the coal reserves, or a dam is destroyed. It takes years to rebuild something like that. This is not irreparable damage. This means that if you switch off a power plant, the power grid is permanently weakened, especially since the grid itself is also weakened and you cannot simply top up with electricity from abroad. And that’s why these dams are highly attractive targets. The Russians used to believe that they would one day conquer the whole of Ukraine themselves. They needed the dams to be able to cross their troops themselves. Also because they naturally wanted to continue using the infrastructure. Once they’ve given up that goal, the natural course of action is to attack those same levees in some way. Above all, however, because Ukraine always has to bring its troops across this river. The troops that have now been released at Cherson would also have to cross the river and there are few crossings. And if they are destroyed – of course you can then convert everything with pontoon bridges and somehow translate it, but of course that paralyzes all operations.