Ukraine accuses Russia of wanting to destroy a dam near Kherson

Ukraine has accused Russia of having mined a hydroelectric dam near Kherson, in the south of the country, with a view to causing a “catastrophe” in this region which it began to evacuate in the face of the advance of the Kyiv troops.

“Russia is consciously preparing the ground for a large-scale disaster in southern Ukraine,” denounced Mr. Zelensky from a distance before the Council of the European Union on Thursday.

According to him, the Russian forces “mined the dam and the units of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station”, one of the largest infrastructures of this type in Ukraine. If the dam explodes, “more than 80 localities, including Kherson, will find themselves in the zone of rapid flooding”, he was alarmed.

“It might destroy the water supply for much of southern Ukraine,” and affect the cooling of the reactors at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which draws its water from the 18 million cubic meter artificial lake, Mr. Zelensky added.

Russia’s goal is to stop the advance of Ukrainian troops in the region and to protect Russian forces, said one of Mr. Zelensky’s advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, on Twitter.

The Russian administration of the Kherson region assured that the evacuations of civilians had started, with Thursday 15,000 people evacuated from this territory annexed by Moscow. It plans to move “50,000 to 60,000” in a few days to the other bank of the Dnieper.

General Sergey Surovikin, recently appointed head of Russian operations in Ukraine, admitted on Tuesday that the situation there was “very difficult”.

For the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, we are witnessing “the preparation of the massive deportation of the Ukrainian population” to Russia “in order to modify the ethnic composition of the occupied territories”.

Threat from Belarus

Struck in its infrastructure and confronted with Russian forces in the south and east, Ukraine was also alarmed on Thursday by the possible opening of a new front in the north, from Belarus.

“The threat of a resumption of the offensive on the northern front by the Russian armed forces is growing,” Oleksiï Gromov, an official with the Ukrainian general staff, told the press.

According to him, “this time, the offensive might be west of the Belarusian border to cut off the main supply routes for foreign arms and military equipment” which arrive in particular via Poland.

Mr Zelensky underlined in this context before the European Council that the Ukrainian proposal to deploy an international monitoring mission on the border between Ukraine and Belarus “is becoming more relevant every day”.

In the United States, the White House claimed that Iran had sent soldiers to Crimea to help the Russian army.

Iran was already sanctioned by the West on Thursday for deliveries of suicide drones, which it continues to deny. Russia also called the information “outlandish assumptions.”

“We believe that Iranian military personnel have been on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations,” US presidential National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said of the suicide drone attacks. once morest cities and infrastructure in Ukraine.

Also in the United States, Joe Biden castigated the Republican Party on Thursday evening, accusing it of wanting, in the event of victory in the legislative elections in November, to reduce American financial support for Ukraine. “They say if they win, they probably won’t continue funding Ukraine,” the US president said.

After several waves of Russian strikes on its infrastructure, Ukraine on Thursday limited the electricity consumption of its population and businesses.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged businesses, shops, cafes and restaurants to “save as much as possible” on lights and illuminated .

In several other regions, local authorities have called on residents to reduce their consumption, as Russia destroyed 30% of Ukrainian power plants in a week, according to Mr Zelensky.