Thread by @egavactip

If this is being done intentionally, it is most likely a defensive effort on the part of Ukrainians; most military flooding events are defensive in nature.

"Satellite images show flooding north of Kyiv in possible sign of ‘hydraulic warfare’"
washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/…

This was a tactic that was used extensively in World War II. The Germans, for example, blew up dams over the Roer River to cause flooding to interfere with the American invasion of Germany in 1944-45.

In Italy in 1943, the Germans flooded the Pontine Marshes south of Rome to slow the Allied advance there. The Germans also flooded parts of Normandy in anticipation of a possible Allied invasion and parts of the Netherlands to hinder the Canadian liberation of that country.

The largest, most desperate, and most damaging example of military flooding at that time was the decision in 1938 by the Chinese Nationalists to blow up dikes containing the Yellow River in its banks. They hoped to interfere with the Japanese invasion of China. But the results

were far more harmful to the Chinese than the Japanese. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese died and millions became homeless refugees. It wasn't until 1947 that the flooding was contained.

It is possible to use flooding as an offensive weapon, but it is much rarer. One example is the Allied flooding of Walcheren Island in the Netherlands, which helped them capture the island and open up a safe route to the strategic port of Antwerp.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inundatio…