The occupiers could have carried out the blowing up of the Kakhovka HPP because of panic fear of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as to blackmail the West.

Russian political scientist Andrei Piontkovsky told Channel 24 about this.

"The military effect is relatively small, this option was not central. Unfortunately, crossing the Dnieper without air support, which Ukraine will receive in just a few months... It was hardly the main direction," Piontkowski said.

He noted that in this way the occupiers are trying to blackmail the West.

"It is important for them to show that they are cool and detachable, so they can easily blow up hydroelectric power plants or anything else. It is not surprising that there was an immediate threat of a possible accident at ZNPP. This is blackmail that continues. Like, if you don't go for what you've now flooded Kyiv [with all sorts of peaceful ceasefire proposals so that Vladimir Putin can keep part of Ukrainian territory and sell it to his people as an honorable draw), then we will go for anything," Piontkovsky explained.

As the expert summed up, "there is panic and blackmail at the same time. This combination is possible from a psychological point of view."

Recall that due to the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP, and consequently, its destruction, the price of building a new one may be about $ 1 billion. It is not only about installing new hydraulic units, but about restoring the integrity of a huge dam.

Read also:

• "From the roof you can see how drowned people are floating": Zelensky on the situation in the occupied part of Kherson region
• Humeniuk told how the flood affected the actions of the occupiers in the Kherson region
• After the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric station, big water already threatens Nikolaev: what is the situation in the city