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The long-awaited offensive from Ukraine has begun. So far the results have been mixed with both sides claiming victories per the normal flow of propaganda. None of that matters.

What is not up for discussion is the tragedy, aimed squarely at civilians, of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, attacked last night releasing the Dnieper river into the valley in Kherson oblast.

This dam provided not only local electric power but also cooling water for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

The ZNPP has been the subject of numerous incidents since this war began with battles being fought over it, and accusations flying wildly from the West as to how irresponsible Russia was. None of that turned out to be true as ZNPP was set up to be the site of a massive false flag involving UN inspectors which failed.

It doesn’t matter who you back in this war or whose incentives you sympathize with. Acts like this serve many purposes, some of them military, some of them political.

And they follow a particular pattern.

Like the narrative from last year surrounding the attacks on the ZNPP, this attack on the dam begs very obvious questions.

Why would Russia attack a nuclear power plant in an area under its control?

Going back to Syria right after Donald Trump took office in early 2017, why would Assad gas civilians when he and Russia had the momentum and was clearly winning the war in Idlib province, invoking the wrath of the world?

Why would Russia blow up Nordstream 1 and 2 as they were initially accused of?

Why would Russia attack a dam in territory they control that provides local power to Kherson, cooling water to the ZNPP and fresh water to Crimea?

The answers to all of these questions is simply, “They wouldn’t.”

So now let’s do a little more historic digging into past behavior.

Before the war officially started who blew up power stations denying Crimea power in the fall of 2015, creating blackouts and real civilian hardship?

Who is on record saying that the Minsk Agreements were simply a time-buying exercise to arm Ukraine and freeze Russia for the war we have today?

Who staged a terrorist attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge?

Who has tested the waters on attacking the dam?

Whose leadership continues to go around the world desperately trying to convince rational people that this irrational ethnic war between tribes of Slavs is a fight for the future of western civilization?

Who intentionally helped stoke simmering hatred of all things Russian across the entirety of Eastern Europe to push the world to this moment?

In short, who armed Ukraine while never once acting with one ounce of humility or basic human decency to find a solution that didn’t involve thousands of dead Slavs?

The answer is the same people accusing Russia today of blowing up a dam that severely weakens their strategic position in southern Ukraine.

The first person out the gate was EU Council President Charles Michel:

Shocked by the unprecedented attack of the Nova Kakhovka dam.

The destruction of civilian infrastructure clearly qualifies as a war crime – and we will hold Russia and its proxies accountable.

— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) June 6, 2023

The rest of the world will pile on for the next 72 hours or so until some footage or evidence makes its way into the information space. It’s the same pattern as Nordstream, the chemical attacks in Ghouta and Khan Sheykoun, MH-17 and a host of other attacks on civilians over the past decade since Putin helped thwart Obama’s “Coalition of the willing” to take out Assad in 2013 following Ghouta.

Right on schedule: Perfidious Albion weighs in.

The destruction of Kakhovka dam is an abhorrent act.

Intentionally attacking exclusively civilian infrastructure is a war crime.

The UK stands ready to support Ukraine and those affected by this catastrophe.

— James Cleverly