You mirroring attempt doesn't actually work because Russia and Ukraine are not the same and each has very different war goals. The destruction of the dam has very real long term consequences that are not offset by supposed short term gains. How long do you think it will take to repair the dam? How long has it taken Russia to fix the Kerch bridge under conditions that are essentially peaceful?Benefits to Selenskyj by destroing the dam:
- Destroy more major infrastructure in order to deprive Russian military and civilians of electricity Never been a part of the UA strategy. Their goal has been to preserve necessary infrastructure whenever possible.
- Enables UA to redeploy more troops to the main counter attack (Bachmut region and others), because the Kherson area does not need much defending for weeks or even months Could be, see below
- Shortens Ukrainian offensive/defensive lines by 60 miles, enabling them to concentrate their firepower See below
- Puts nuclear plant possibly at risk, so if it should get critical he can blame it on Russia Ah yes, severely pollute Ukraine for many years so he can blame Russia this week.
- Makes life for Ukrainians on the Russian side of the lower river more miserable and likely refugees Yes, real leadership: make your people miserable and force them from their homes
- Creating chaos and binding resources from local authorities and soldiers This does not make any sense what does it mean?
- Getting more weapons and $ from the west, by blaming the destruction of the dam on Russia The weapons are coming anyway because of Russia's previous destruction of Ukraine
The UA has not had the opportunity to position demolition charges to blow up the dam. The Russians have. There has been no evidence that the dam was destroyed by any type of air attack. Zelensky has spent months trying to keep Ukrainian infrastructure intact; blowing up a huge and important piece of it makes no sense at all. As for destroying the dam in order to free troops for the new offense the cost benefit ration seems very far out of balance. The dam was a huge and valuable asset to the nation that is not easily replaced. Destroying it to limit the range of their offensive actions seems like a poor military decision. They would want to keep Putin guessing where the attack will come and not narrow the possibilities.