The Kakhov reservoir, even after being blown up by the hydroelectric power station, remains a very difficult terrain, which in military terms can only be mentioned in this way.
Public Sentinel images from the European Space Agency speak of this, which directly show that the option when the drained Kakhov reservoir will simplify landing operations is unlikely. To do this, it is possible to compare pictures from March 11, 2024 and October 28, 2023.
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In particular, at the end of October last year, the former Kakhov reservoir looked as follows:
Kakhov reservoir on October 28, 2023
In general, the Dnipro has already returned to the historical river, and the entire area resembles as much as possible what is depicted on historical maps – Velikiy Lug. But in mid-March 2024, this same area looks like this:
Kakhov reservoir on March 11, 2024
Obviously, due to natural processes with the melting of snow, large areas again went under water. And this means that when the water recedes again, it will be very weak soils where any equipment, including amphibious ones, will not pass.
We will also provide more detailed pictures. For example, the biggest changes are visible east of Energodar:
Opposite the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant itself, where the width of the Dnieper has become much larger near the right bank:
And also to the east of it in the area of Novovorontsovka and Osokorivka, where the width of the water surface actually returned to the level before the explosion of the Kakhovskaya HPP:
Downstream, the changes are smaller. Below in the pictures are the area of Dudchany and Velyka Lepetikha villages:
There are also smaller changes immediately south of Zaporizhzhia, but we are still talking about a low-traffic area.
Thus, despite the fact that the Kakhov reservoir was drained, the area itself – Velikiy Lug – is the least suitable for any advances. Because it is a combination of the Dnipro river itself, floodplains, marshy and flooded areas.
And this is the natural state of the Great Meadow – the minimum water level in September – October, and with the beginning of spring and floods and until the middle of summer – transformation into an almost continuous water space.
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