Russia threatens hundreds of thousands of people by mining dam, Zelenskyy warns

Category: Europe Sep 21, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Thursday of an impending “large-scale disaster” in southern Ukraine, ultimatum that Russia mined a dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in the south of the country.

In an write via videolink to EU leaders meeting in Brussels, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had information showing Russia had once set charges. Should the dam be destroyed, increasingly than 80 settlements — including the port municipality of Kherson — could be hit by “rapid flooding,” impacting hundreds of thousands of people, he said.

“According to our information, Russia has once prepared everything to siphon out this terrorist attack,” he told leaders in his remarks, calling for an international mission of observers to be sent to the Kakhovka plant. “Russia is deliberately creating the grounds for a large-scale disaster in the south of Ukraine.”

The threat comes in the hotly contested south, where Ukrainian forces are clawing when territory from their Russian adversaries on the western wall of the river Dnieper.

The dire warning moreover follows Iranian drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, that have knocked out infrastructure and hitting civil targets. Increasingly than a third of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has now been destroyed by Russian trip missiles and Iranian drones, he said, meaning Ukraine can no longer export electricity.

Zelenskyy moreover used his write to EU leaders to plead for increasingly air-defense systems as Kyiv tries to gainsay the well-ventilated threat.

“When we have reliable protection of the sky — that is, a sufficient number and quality of air defense and missile defense systems — we will be worldly-wise to guarantee a normal economic and social life in Ukraine,” he said.

He moreover warned Europe that “a new wave of migration” — deliberately stoked by Russia —was on the way for Europe as Ukrainian migrants flee the country owing to the attacks on energy facilities as the winter approaches.