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Ukraine's domestic security service said it intercepted a phone call proving a Russian "sabotage group" blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine.
It posted a recording of what it said was an intercepted telephone call on its official Telegram channel. The recording is presented as being between two unidentified Russian soldiers or officials with no indication of where or when the call purportedly took place.
While one of the men appears to claim a Russian sabotage group was responsible for attacking the dam, he offers no evidence in support. The recording has not been verified by CNBC.
The audio of the recorded is as follows, according to a translation by NBC:
-There was a video yesterday on Telegram: a soldier stands, his face is covered, and fully equipped. And tells that there is no flooding and that people live normal lives. But there is a window behind him and it is visible that the sea is up to a knee [means lots of water].
-Ah-ha… cool. Is it about HPP? HPP that was destroyed?
-Yes, yes.
-Ah, I see.
-The main issue is that as it turned out this HPP cools a reactor, their one, some atomic reactor.
-Well, great, screw up themselves. It will blow up and that's it!
-That's ours [Russian] to blew it up. It's not theirs [Ukrainians], it's ours did.
-No way, ours? It was said that khokhols [derogatory term for Ukrainians] blew it up.
-There wasn't a blow up. That was our sabotage group. They wanted, kind of to scare [blackmail] by the dam, but it went unplanned, more than they planned.
-Well, naturally, it will cover [affect] like in Chernobyl, right?
-The construction is from 50th [1950th]. Rapidly collapsed. There was a safari-park down there, thousands of animals died.
-Got it.
The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, was separately quoted in the Telegram post as saying: "We remind you that the Security Service of Ukraine has opened criminal proceedings on the fact of a war crime committed by the Russian Federation. By blowing up the Kakhovka HPP dam, the Russian Federation finally proved that it is a threat to the entire civilized world. After all, only a real terrorist state can arrange a man-made and ecological catastrophe of this level."
— Natasha Turak
Source: CNBC
