The North Crimean Canal is used for irrigation and water supply to Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula. It was built using “volunteer” labor and completed in 1971 under Soviet direction.
After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukrainian authorities greatly cut the volume of water flowing into Crimea via the canal, citing a huge outstanding debt on water supplies owed by the peninsula. This caused the peninsula’s agricultural harvest which is heavily dependent on irrigation to fail in 2014.
Crimea is now running dangerously short on water, and the situation is quickly becoming untenable for the Russian occupation. Let’s try and guess what will happen next…
Why Russia wants to invade Ukraine, a thread.
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 1, 2021
tl;dr it’s because of water. (It’s always water isn’t it?). This is the North Crimean Canal, dammed up since the Russian invasion of Crimea. Crimea is rapidly running out of water, and Russia needs this canal flowing again. pic.twitter.com/LOUvrAAMdn
Update: The Russians are making a move.
Picture of a HUGE #Russia|n Army fuel convoy in #Crimea. Photo was first released yesterday. pic.twitter.com/t5E8nc7MjC
— marqs (@MarQs__) April 1, 2021