Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russian invaders mined the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and are preparing to carry out a terrorist attack. He also called for an international observation mission to be sent to the plant.
Zelensky stated this in his address to the European Council, Ukrinform reports.
“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,” he said.
He added that the Kakhovka HPP is a large energy facility, and its dam holds about 18 million cubic meters of water. “If Russian terrorists blow up this dam, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, will be in the zone of rapid flooding. Hundreds, hundreds of thousands of people may be affected,” Zelensky said.
According to him, the water supply of a large part of southern Ukraine may be destroyed.
Zelensky said that this Russian terrorist attack could leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant without water for cooling as water for the ZNPP is taken from the Kakhovka Reservoir.
In addition, he noted that even the operation of the canal, which was built to supply water to Crimea and which is periodically allegedly “cared about” by Moscow, will be completely destroyed.
“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. An international observation mission to the Kakhovka HPP is needed. It is necessary to return the Ukrainian personnel there and ensure immediate and professional demining of the aggregates and the dam,” Zelensky said.
He added that Russia is doing this in order to organize another false flag operation – to carry out a terrorist attack and blame Ukraine for it.
“We know that this territory is controlled by the occupiers and what they were capable of already. They themselves will stop at nothing. But we can stop them. We can stop the onset of catastrophic consequences. We can, and therefore we must!” Zelensky said.
Otherwise, he noted, the devastating environmental, humanitarian, man-made consequences of this single Russian terrorist attack may become such that it will be called “a historical disaster.”
source ukrinform