Zelenskyy Claims Russia Is Planning Mass Flood
(ConservativeSense.com) – False flag operations in Luhansk and Donetsk preceded Russia’s incursion into Ukraine on February 24, ostensibly justifying Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade his neighbor. Now, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims the Russians have mined a hydroelectric dam serving Kherson and fears they will flood up to 80 towns while blaming Ukraine’s military.
On Thursday evening, October 20, Zelenskyy claimed opposing forces had placed mines along the dam for the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (KHPP). Sources indicate the Kremlin hatched the plan in April when troops laid the mines. On Friday, Ukraine requested the UN, EU, and other international organizations monitor the KHPP as soon as possible to prevent damage.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is deliberately creating the grounds for a large-scale disaster in Ukraine's Kherson Oblast.
"We have information that Russians mined the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant," Zelensky said on Oct. 20. https://t.co/LtrppJLCrB
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 20, 2022
State-run news outlet Kommersant reported on how Russian occupiers began discharging water from the dam on Saturday, preparing for a massive Ukrainian attack. In an interview with the media outlet on October 18, General Sergei Surovikin, commander of the Russian special operation forces, blamed existing damage to the structure on Ukrainian HIMARS missiles. On Monday, Russian state media alleged Kyiv-based forces hit the KHPP with three of 19 missiles fired that morning at the neighboring city of Novaya Kakhovka.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) claims the general is using a classic Russian subterfuge technique. Surovikin has set the stage to destroy the dam and lay the blame at the feet of the defending forces while effectively cutting those troops off from Southern Ukraine and Crimea and crippling Ukraine’s economy.
The KHPP’s destruction would flood Kherson and areas downstream, releasing 18 million cubic meters of water, or about 4.755 billion gallons. “It would also harm Ukraine’s ability to generate electricity as the country heads into winter,” Neil Melvin of the Royal United Services Institute told Newsweek. Additionally, the reservoir provides cooling water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, necessitating its shutdown.
Is this the Kremlin’s modern twist on scorched earth, another classic Russian tactic? Will they leave drowned earth in their wake?
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