Russia Using Kakhovka Dam to Intimidate Civilians Into Evacuation: Ukraine

Russian troops are reportedly intimidating Ukrainian civilians into evacuating by threatening to blow up a hydroelectric dam on the Dnipro River, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

"The occupiers continue to forcibly relocate the civilian population in the temporarily occupied territories of the Kherson oblast," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post. "The enemy is resorting to intimidation of civilian residents, spreading information about the possible undermining of the Kakhovska HPP dam. At the same time, the local population is deprived of means of communication."

Both sides have accused each other of planning to blow up the plant, a dam that pumps water into the North Crimean canal and could unleash a massive flood over southern Ukraine and the entire Crimean peninsula.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of mining the Kakhovka dam, warning that such a move would cause a "large-scale disaster."

"The dam of this hydroelectric power plant holds a volume of about 18 million cubic meters of water," Zelensky said in an address. "If Russian terrorists blow up this dam, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, will be in the zone of rapid flooding. Hundreds of thousands of people could be affected."

The Kremlin, which has refuted Zelensky's claims as "lies," has also accused Ukraine of targeting the Russian-occupied hydro plant, claiming that Ukrainian forces were firing missiles at the dam, one of the few remaining routes across the key river.

On Tuesday, Ukraine reported that Russia launched an additional four missiles and 26 airstrikes, which hit more than 20 different settlements, including Mykilske of the Zaporizhzhia oblast, Poltava, Kramatorsk, Nikopol and Mykolaiv.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Kyiv carried out 22 strikes of its own and said that the Kremlin's military resources continue to be depleted more than eight full months into Russia's invasion.

"The occupying command is trying to compensate for the constant loss of personnel in enemy units that take direct part in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine with mobilized servicemen," Ukraine said. "With those who refuse to participate in combat operations, the so-called 'work' is carried out by the employees of the [Federal Security Service] of the Russian Federation."

U.S.-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War has suggested that Russia is preparing for a false flag attack on the Kakhovka dam by creating conditions that would justify a decision to blow up the plant after Moscow pulls out of the Kherson region. It would also pave a path for Russia to accuse Ukraine of the flood, the think tank said.