Russia is laying the groundwork to destroy a key Ukrainian dam which would flood Kherson and cover its troops’ retreat from the city, a think-tank has concluded.
General Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s new supreme commander in Ukraine, has spoken to Russian media in recent days about what he called a ‘devastating strike’ on the Nova Kakhovka dam which he said was being plotted by Kyiv’s troops.
Surovikin, who has also been preparing the Russian public for a retreat from the region, said the blast would flood Kherson and cause widespread damage.
This is likely setting up for a ‘false-flag attack’ that would cover Russia’s retreat and prove a distraction from its latest battlefield humiliation, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War have concluded.
Breaching the dam would also be another blow to Ukraine’s battered energy grid, with people told to brace for rolling four-hour blackouts from today after a third of the country’s power plants were blown up in a little over a week.
Russia has been using hundreds of missiles and suicide drones to attack Ukraine’s infrastructure in an apparent attempt to break civilian will to continue the war.
Such attacks are a war crime, under international law.