Ukraine, Russia Blame Each Other For Planning Terrorist Attack To Blow Up Kherson Dam

Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for planning to blow up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam on the Dnieper River in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Thursday that Russia was planning to carry out a "false flag" terrorist operation to blow up the hydroelectric dam that would cause a "large-scale disaster" in southern Ukraine.

On the same day, Russian state news agency TASS cited statements by Moscow-backed Kherson officials who accused Ukrainian forces of planning to blow up the dam to flood parts of the region and cut water supply to Crimea.

The plant, which is located 5 kilometers away from the city of Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region, was taken over by Russia soon after it invaded Ukraine. Following their counter-offensive launched last month, Ukrainian forces are now clawing back territory in the region from Russian control.

In his address to European Union leaders via video link, the Ukrainian president alleged that Russia had mined a dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and called on the global community to respond preemptively and send an international monitoring mission to the hydropower plant.

Zelensky accused Russia of planning the "false flag" operation aimed at framing Ukraine for the devastating humanitarian and ecological disaster that would ensue. He said the disaster would potentially flood 80 towns, villages and cities, including the strategically important city of Kherson.

"Russia is deliberately creating the grounds for a large-scale disaster in the south of Ukraine. We have information that Russian terrorists mined the dam and aggregates of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant," Zelensky said.

Calling for an international mission of observers to be sent to the Kakhovka plant, the president said: "This Russian terrorist attack could leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant without water for cooling – water for the ZNPP is taken from the Kakhovka Reservoir."

"According to our information, Russia has already prepared everything to carry out this terrorist attack. Ukrainian workers were kicked out of the Kakhovka station — only Russian citizens stay there. They have complete control over the station. It is necessary to act immediately so that Russia does not have the opportunity to realize this catastrophe," Zelensky said further.

Meanwhile, TASS said in a report that the Moscow-backed Kherson region's deputy governor, Kirill Stremousov, had earlier warned that Ukrainian troops were planning to blow up the Kakhovka dam to flood part of the region.

The Russian news agency also reported that Vladimir Leontyev, the Moscow-installed head of the Kakhovka district military-civilian administration, had told a television channel that if the dam would be blown up, the water supply to Crimea would stop.

"Should the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant's dam be blown up, the water supply to Crimea would stop," Leontyev said, as per TASS. "If the hydropower plant explodes, the North Crimean Canal would have no water for years to come, until the facility is rebuilt, and Crimea would be left without water, too."

Early last month, Ukrainian troops mounted a major counter-offensive breaking through Russian defenses in the Kherson region. Moscow ordered the evacuation of thousands of civilians from the area around Kherson, following reports that Ukraine was planning a major assault to recapture the city.