Zelensky: Russia to target dam in southern Ukraine to flood Kherson

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Thursday that Russia was plotting to blow up a large hydroelectric dam in southern Ukraine, which would cause devastating flooding to Kherson along with 80 other towns and villages.

Zelensky told European leaders in a virtual meeting that his government received information that Russian terrorists were targeting the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, which supplies water to a large portion of southern Ukraine.

He said such an event would negatively affect the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant because the hydroelectric dam is the nuclear plant's main source of water.

A week ago, Moscow-installed officials in Kherson, which Russia has occupied since early in the war, called for the evacuation of civilians in the area. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree claiming his country has annexed Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions.

Russian Gen. Sergei Surovikin, Moscow's new military commander in Ukraine, said it is Kyiv that is actually planning "banned methods of warfare" in Kherson city and the hydroelectric dam. He said the rumor justified the "evacuation" of the civilian population.

According to Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Synyehubov, six people were injured on Friday morning in a Russian strike on industrial infrastructure there. The city of Zaporizhzhia experienced a series of explosions on Friday as well. Ukrainian officials also reported attacks on the coastal community of Kutsurub in the Mykolaiv region.