Kakhovka HPP explosion: journalists identify Russian military who controlled plant

This is reported by Schemes and the Slidstvo.info agency.

It is reported that the commander of the 205th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade of the Russian Federation, which seized the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, was Colonel Roman Titov, and not Eduard Shandura, as previously thought.

This brigade seized the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station on the first day of the full-scale Russian invasion. Titov has been in charge of the unit since August 2022.

Journalists found additional confirmation of the change of command of the 205th Brigade on the page of school No. 16 in the village of Kuzminske on the social network VKontakte. They published a letter of gratitude signed by the commander of the 205th Brigade, Roman Titov.

Prior to taking up the position of commander of the 205th Brigade, Titov led units that took part in hostilities in the temporarily occupied territories of eastern Ukraine. According to Ukrainian intelligence, he has a criminal record for abuse of power with the use of violence and weapons.

The list of the 205th Brigade's soldiers includes almost four hundred people. The journalists were able to identify the soldiers who controlled the hydroelectric power station. In particular, Arsen Pitskhelauri with the call sign Gruzin, who took an active part in the seizure of the Kherson region.

The journalists identified Ruslan Magomedov, a sergeant in the engineer battalion of the 205th Brigade, who was awarded the Order of Courage in December 2022.

He was awarded by the deputy commander of the 205th Brigade with the call sign Polygon, who was also identified as 36-year-old Major Denys Mishchenko. The awarding ceremony took place near the hydroelectric power station in the Nova Kakhovka Park of Glory.

What is known about Kakhovka HPP

The Russian invaders seized the main structure of the North Crimean Canal and the Kakhovka HPP on 24 February last year.

The Kakhovka HPP is located 5 km from the Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka. The water for the North Crimean Cannal is taken from the Kakhovka reservoir.

This hydroelectric power plant is the lowest and last (sixth) stage in the Dnipro reservoir cascade. 

The hydroelectric power plant near Nova Kakhovka ensured the annual regulation of the Dnipro river flow, water and electricity supply in the southern part of Ukraine

On 20 October 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing to stage a new large-scale terrorist attack - to blow up the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in Kherson region. At the same time, he listed other consequences that could be caused by the explosion of the 

Kakhovka HPP and its dam:

• Hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Ukraine would be in the danger zone and could suffer from the resulting floods;

• water supply to a large part of southern Ukraine and Crimea could be disrupted;

• a Russian terrorist attack could leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant without water for cooling, as water for ZNPP is taken from the Kakhovka reservoir;

• the overall devastating environmental, humanitarian, and man-made consequences of such a terrorist attack would reach the scale of a "historic catastrophe".

Later, the head of the Kherson City Military Administration, Halyna Luhova, addressed the people of Kherson in connection with Russia's preparation of a terrorist attack on the Kakhovka HPP. She published an algorithm of actions to be taken in the event of a dam being blown up.

On Tuesday, 6 June, Russian occupation forces blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, completely destroying it. For more information on how the situation developed on the morning of 6 June, please follow this link.