DLNews Ukrain War:

80 places and nuclear power plants in danger

Russian troops patrol in front of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, a run-of-river power station on the Dnieper river in the Kherson region

Is the next catastrophe in the Russian war against Ukraine looming in the Kherson region?

According to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's troops of Russian despot Putin have mined the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.

The danger: If the dam breaks due to a Russian blast, more than 80 settlements will be flooded – including the regional capital of Cherson. Hundreds of thousands could be affected, according to Zelenskyj in a video link with Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov (56).

According to the Ukrainian president, such a "probable Russian terrorist attack" could become a "historic catastrophe."

Russia's top Ukraine commander Sergei Surovikin had already announced exactly this attack that Zelenskyy fears on Wednesday - albeit with the accusation that Ukraine wanted to blow up the dam.

Why this claim? According to the US think tank “Institute for the Study of War” (ISW), he is preparing the ground for a so-called “false flag operation”: Russia wants to blow up the dam itself and then blame Ukraine for it.

Selenskyj also suspects this plan: "We know this area is controlled by the occupiers and what they were already capable of. Russia is doing this to arrange another false flag operation - to stage a terrorist attack and blame Ukraine for it."

An explosion at the dam of the hydroelectric power plant could cut off the water supply to a large part of southern Ukraine and possibly leave the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant without cooling.

Russia's goal: A flood would cover the Russian retreat in the Kherson region and mask the subsequent humiliating defeat (after Kyiv and Kharkiv) of Putin's army. In addition, Russian propaganda could use it to brand Ukraine even more strongly as a terrorist state - thus, justify its own atrocities.

In addition to the alleged coming attack on the dam, Russia is trying to bleed the abandoned areas dry as much as possible. According to the ISW, the "evacuations" or forced relocations of civilians from Cherson also indicate this.

They would have no economic benefit for Russia. So instead, they wanted to rob Cherson of its Ukrainian population to destroy it economically and culturally.

Russia has continuously attacked Ukrainian infrastructure over the past two weeks. As a result, the power supply is interrupted in some parts of the country; Zelenskyj also announced planned blackouts to reduce the load on the grid.

Zelenskyy has accused Putin's troops of turning his country's energy infrastructure into a "battlefield." "The Russian leadership has given the order to turn the energy system itself into a battlefield," Zelenskyy said in a Thursday speech to the European Council.

With the attacks on Ukrainian power plants, Russia also wants to trigger a mass emigration of its compatriots to the EU, according to Zelenskyy. "Russia is provoking a new wave of migration of Ukrainians to the countries of the European Union," says Ukraine's President in a video link to the EU summit.

In his speech, Zelensky called on European countries to equip Kyiv with more sophisticated air defense systems and impose further economic sanctions on Moscow. "We have already received a very effective Iris-T system from Germany," he said. "I thank the Chancellor for that."

The Iris-T system "not only protects Ukrainian airspace, but it also protects European stability by containing Russian terror, which hits both our country and your countries in the future," Zelenskyy added.