Hydropolitics of Russian-Ukrainian war: analyzing water governance conflicts in the Dnieper River basin through remote sensing techniques

Abstract Our focus in this study is to examine the role of water governance strategies in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. NDWI and NDVI indices have been used to check the depth of water in the North Crimean Canal (NCC), a major water canal built during the Soviet era to transfer water from the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine to the Crimean Peninsula, the flood caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, a large hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, near the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region, and the amount of agriculture around the NCC. We show that beyond water issues, Putin formulates the importance of Ukraine within the geopolitical imagination of the broader Russian ethnic culture, viewing water as both a material and discursive resource.