Foes accuse each other of planning to destroy dam
RUSSIA and Ukraine have traded accusations of sabotage, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claiming that Moscow’s forces have mined a key hydroelectric dam and are threatening to blow it up to cover their withdrawal from the occupied city of Kherson.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the huge Kakhovka dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir. He called on world leaders to make it clear that blowing up the dam would be treated ‘‘exactly the same as the use of weapons of mass destruction’’.
The charge came after Russia’s top commander claimed that Kyiv was planning to take down the dam itself.
The destruction of the dam would not only inundate villages but empty a reservoir of which the water is used to cool reactors at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, currently under Russian control. It would also add to Ukraine’s energy woes after weeks of Russian missile strikes aimed at hobbling its power network.
The reservoir at Kakhovka also supplies the canal on which Crimea relies for almost all its fresh water.
In Kherson city, Russian officials are continuing their withdrawal across the Dnipro River, taking civilians with them in what Kyiv has condemned as a mass deportation. The withdrawal has stoked speculation that Russian troops are preparing to abandon the city, which commanders have denied.
United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin yesterday
spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, for the first time since May, as Ukrainian forces seek to make advances ahead of winter, and Russian
drone and missile attacks have terrorised civilians.
Details of the call were closely guarded by both sides. The Pentagon said Austin ‘‘emphasised the importance of maintaining lines of communication’’.
The Pentagon relies on backchannel discussions with Russia and other adversaries as a means to avoid missteps or miscommunication that could inadvertently trigger a wider conflict, especially as Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested again in recent weeks his willingness to employ nuclear weapons.
Russia, facing harsh Western sanctions and other punitive economic measures, has turned to Iran for help amid mounting battlefield losses. The White House this past week affirmed reports that Tehran had dispatched a small number of personnel to assist Russian operators using Iranian-made drones to target key infrastructure in Ukraine.