Ukraine: Russia plans to destroy hydro dam, with potentially catastrophic results

KYIV (AFP) — Kyiv accused Russia of planning to destroy a hydroelectric dam in the southern Kherson region, where Ukrainian soldiers have been steadily advancing and Moscow-installed authorities have begun evacuations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had mined the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant with the intent of blowing it up, in what would amount to a “catastrophe on a grand scale.”

Hundreds of thousands of people around the lower Dnipro River would be in danger of rapid flooding if the dam was destroyed, Zelensky warned in a speech Thursday to European leaders.

He said cutting water supplies to the south could also impact the cooling systems of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.

And the North Crimean canal, which provides a crucial water supply to Crimea — occupied since 2014 by Russia — could be destroyed. READ MORE