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Russia alleged Sunday that a Ukrainian strike had damaged the critical Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in the Moscow-occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
This comes amid Ukraine’s allegation in mid-October that Russia was planning to carry out a “false flag” terrorist operation to blow up the hydroelectric dam that would cause a “large-scale disaster” in southern Ukraine.
“Today at 10:00 there was a hit of six HIMARS rockets. Air defense units shot down five missiles, one hit a lock of the Kakhovka dam, which was damaged,” a Moscow Times report quoting Russian agencies said.
However, the report added that the damage to the dam was not “critical.”
“Everything is under control. The main air defense strikes were repelled, one missile hit [the dam], but did not cause critical damage,” Ruslan Agayev, a representative of the Moscow-installed administration of nearby city Novaya Kakhovka, told the Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news agency, according to the report.
The plant, located 5 kilometers away from the city of Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region, was taken over by Russia soon after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleged in an address to European Union leaders in mid-October that Russian forces had mined a dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant to carry out a “false flag” terrorist operation.
“According to our information, Russia has already prepared everything to carry out this terrorist attack,” Zelensky said at the time.
Asking for an international mission of observers to be sent to the Kakhovka plant, the Ukrainian president added, “It is necessary to act immediately so that Russia does not have the opportunity to realize this catastrophe.”
Following its counter-offensive launched in September, Ukrainian forces are now clawing back territory in the region from Russian control. With Ukrainian forces pushing forward to retake the city, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for the evacuation of civilians still living in Kherson.
Although the Russia evacuation is seen as a retreat of Moscow’s forces from Kherson, the withdrawal from the key city has come as a surprise for many who see it as a potential trap laid by Russian forces. The Kherson region offers Moscow the only land corridor with the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
On its part, Moscow has also accused Ukrainian troops of planning to blow up the Kakhovka dam to flood part of the region and cut the water supply to annexed Crimea. Meanwhile, Zelensky vowed to recapture Crimea from Russian control in August.
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