Kyiv on Thursday accused Russia of planning to destroy a hydropower plant in the eastern Kherson region, where Ukrainian soldiers have been steadily advancing and Moscow-installed authorities have begun evacuations.
“Russia is preparing a man-made catastrophe,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Podolyak said Russia was mining the dam and transformers at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant to flood the lower Dnipro River where Russian forces are under threat from a Ukrainian offensive, adding that the goal would be to halt the Ukrainian advance and protect Russia’s troops.
Photo: AFP
Zelenskiy said that blowing up the dam would be “a catastrophe on a grand scale,” adding with irony that one impact could be to destroy the North Crimean canal, which provides a crucial water supply to Crimea, occupied since 2014 by Russia.
However, a Russian-installed official in the region, Vladimir Leontyev, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had launched five missile strikes against the Kakhovka dam and power station, with the intent of cutting off the canal’s water supply, which is critical to Russians in Crimea.
None of the claims could be independently verified.
Cities across Ukraine on Thursday began curbing electricity consumption ahead of winter as authorities warned that heavy damage to the country’s energy grid by Russian attacks would spark a new wave of refugees from the country.
“Russia’s leadership has given the order to turn the energy system itself into a battlefield. The consequences of this are very dangerous, again for all of us in Europe,” Zelenskiy said in an address to the EU council.
Energy-saving measures were put in place across the country after Russian missile and drone strikes destroyed at least 30 percent of the country’s power stations in a week, authorities said.
Following blackouts in parts of Kyiv overnight, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, urged businesses to limit screens and signage lights “as much as possible.”
“Even small savings and a reduction in electricity consumption in every home will help stabilize the operation of the national energy system,” he said.
Ukrainians responded defiantly.
“It’s not going to change our attitude, maybe we will only hate them more,” said Olga, a resident of Dnipro in central Ukraine who declined to give her last name.
“I would rather sit in the cold, with no water and electricity than be in Russia,” she said.
People were rushing to buy auxiliary power supplies like generators and batteries, said Kyrylo, an electronics vendor.
“There will be some kind of heating in any case, and the fact that it will be 16°C instead of 20°C doesn’t matter much. Just put on a thermal and socks,” he said.
Little changed along the long front lines, where Russia has been sending many of the 200,000 troops newly called up to the fight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday visited a training center for mobilized troops south-east of Moscow where he embraced soldiers and fired a gun.
Some fighters opened their rucksacks to show him what they had been equipped with, and he asked one about his family, who replied he had a five-year-old daughter.
Putin hugged him and wished him “good luck.”
Meanwhile Russia continued to evacuate people from Kherson city as Ukrainian forces inched closer to the southern hub, in Moscow’s hands since the earliest days of the invasion in February.
Moscow-installed authorities in Kherson said that around 15,000 people have been moved out.
Additional reporting by AP
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