President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has warned that Russia is preparing a “false flag” campaign to blow up a large hydroelectric dam in the south of the country, potentially flooding 80 towns, villages and cities. cities, including the strategically important city of Kherson.
He said that the plot to attack the dam at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station in the city of Nova Kakhovka was aimed at framing Ukraine for the devastating ecological and humanitarian disaster that would follow. He called for the establishment of an international observation mission at the plant, saying it was urgent to prevent a possible disaster.
“We have information that Russian terrorists have exploited the dam and aggregate of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station,” he said on Thursday. via video link to a meeting of European leaders in Brussels. “The water supply to a large part of the south of Ukraine could be destroyed.”
He added that a potential attack on the dam also poses a serious security risk, as it could expose the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, without the water needed to cool its facilities. The water for the plants, he said, is taken from the Kakhovka Reservoir.
Russia has not corroborated Ukraine’s claims, which cannot be independently verified. In a report According to Tass, Russian state news agency Kirill Stremousov, deputy governor of the Moscow-backed Kherson region, quoted on Thursday as saying that the possibility of Ukrainian forces “sabotaging” the dam would not cause a “critical” situation. in the area.
On Friday, Mr Stremousov denied Kyiv’s claims about the mines, calling Mr Zelensky a “liar”, according to a report by RIA Novosti, a Kremlin-sponsored news agency.
A report this week from Institute for War StudiesThe Washington-based research group says it appears Russian forces are preparing the ground to launch a “false flag” attack on the Kakhovka plant.
It suggests that such an attack could be a means to distract from a potential Russian retreat from Kherson, a Black Sea port that was the first major city. fall under Russian control less than a week after the invasion. Ukrainian forces are slowly moving towards Kherson, and retaking the city would be a major blow to Russian President Putin. Kherson is about 57 miles downstream from Kakhovka.
The Russian military may believe that breaking the dam could cause them to retreat from the right bank of the Dnipro River and prevent or delay Ukraine’s advances across the river, the institute said.
