Russia mined Kakhovka Dam, ready to blow it up, Zelenskyy says
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Photo:Office of the President)
Russian forces in Kherson Oblast have rigged the dam of Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP) with explosives, poised to blow it up in an apparent act of terror, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post on Oct. 20.
Zelenskyy called Moscow out for preparing to unleash a massive disaster in southern Ukraine.
“We have intelligence that Russian terrorists have mined the (Kakhovka) dam and HEPP turbines,” said Zelenskyy.
“The dam holds back around 18 million cubic meters of water. If Russia blows it up, over 80 (Ukrainian) settlements – including Kherson – will be in the flash flood risk zone. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk.”
Furthermore, this would lower the water level at the Kakhovka Reservoir, which supplies Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) with water to cool its reactors, as well as much of southern Ukraine with drinking water. The canal intended to provide occupied Crimea with water would also be destroyed.
According to the president, Ukrainian employees of the Kakhovka HEPP were driven out, placing the facility under complete Russian control. Zelenskyy urged the international community to send a monitoring mission to the plant in order to ensure its safe operation.
“Russia is doing all this to carry out another false flag attack, intending to blame Ukraine for it,” Zelenskyy concluded.
“We know this territory is under Russian control, and we know what Russians are capable of. They will stop at nothing. Together, we have to stop them.”
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