The western-most part of the former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia is Kherson, whose Governor Vladimir Saldo explained today to RIA Novosti how farming and business is flourishing and that massive infrastructure projects are the next step, including rebuilding the famous Antonovsky Bridge over the Dnieper River and the reconstruction on a more advanced level of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam and water reservoir. The agency first asked him about the bridge.
“You just asked a question to me as a civil engineer. Actually, I’m not really a politician by profession, but more of a business executive, an engineer-economist. Everything can be restored. It is possible to restore both the Antonovsky Bridge and the [nearby] railway bridge.… The fact that it is now destroyed, the destruction associated with the war, is pushing us towards more modern technologies, including construction.
“Russia is a very powerful country, and the engineering, industrial and construction complex of Russia is capable of creating miracles, simply miracles. An example of this is the construction of a previously non-existent bridge across the Kerch Strait. This is a miracle of engineering and a man-made creation, an object that adorns nature. The Antonovsky Bridge is the same. When we give builders the opportunity to work safely, they will restore it quickly enough….
“The Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station was built ... in the 50s. It had two purposes: generating electricity and creating the Kakhovka reservoir. And together with the Kakhovka reservoir, the world’s largest reclamation system was built, which revitalized the region. Dnieper water is life-giving water, fresh water was supplied to these lands and gave a huge impetus to the development of a high culture of agriculture. Therefore, the purpose of the Kakhovka dam: the first is irrigation, the second is the generation of electrical energy. Electrical energy—you need, of course, to rebuild the turbine hall and install turbines, it will generate electricity. The ... reinforced concrete part was destroyed, which was purposefully shelled for several months at the direction of the Kiev clique from American HIMARS and cannon artillery. They hit one point, and this one point eventually could not stand it, and the dam collapsed.
