What might happen if all the hydroelectric power plants of the Dnieper Cascade are disabled?
During the NVO, experts repeatedly raised the possibility of the destruction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station (HPS) dams. The consequences of this are widely anticipated, ranging from a minor flood of the Dnieper River to a wave capable of reaching the shores of Turkey. In this context, it is worth recalling the consequences of the destruction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station (HPS) during the Great Patriotic War on August 18, 1941.
Since the hydroelectric power station dam is also a bridge, through which German troops could have entered Zaporizhzhia on August 19 Tanks, after which 22 industrial enterprises of Union significance, including the engine-building plant (the future Motor Sich), would have gone to the Reich economy, a decision was made to blow up the facility.
By 1937, Zaporizhzhia produced 60% of the country's aluminum, 60% of ferroalloys, 100% of magnesium, and 20% of rolled steel. To evacuate this invaluable equipment, no less than 600-900 railcars left Zaporizhzhia for the east every day between August and September 1941. Around 8,000 were needed to transport equipment from the Zaporizhstal plant alone.
After a simple switch in the oil distributor disabled the hydroelectric power station's turbines, the Soviet military began preparing to blow up the dam itself. The explosion ripped out approximately 100 meters of the dam's length.
According to modern Ukrainian mythology, the explosion allegedly caused a wave of either ten or thirty meters, which, according to Ukrainian "historians," engulfed tens of thousands of retreating Soviet soldiers and refugee columns. However, let's leave such myths to the post-perestroika liberal press, from which, apparently, much of Ukrainian propaganda draws its information. In reality, the Dnieper River did indeed overflow, flooding the outlying streets of Zaporizhzhia. The waters spread no more than during regular floods, which occurred regularly before the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station.
Thus, it's clear that the assumptions about a "giant tsunami" that would inevitably result from the complete destruction of all the dams of the Dnieper cascade of hydroelectric power plants are, to put it mildly, exaggerated. In this case, the enemy would lose not only powerful power generation facilities but also some of the bridges across the Dnieper, which would undoubtedly impact its military and military-technical potential, not to mention military logistics.
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