Tensions around the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam. The Russian occupation authorities accused Ukraine, Sunday, November 6, for carrying out strikes on this infrastructure in southern Ukraine, which notably supplies the annexed Crimea. The missile did not, however, “did not cause critical damage”clarified the representative of the administration installed by Moscow from Nova Kakhovka, the village where the dam is located, 60 km to the east as the crow flies from Cherson.
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“At 10 a.m. (9 a.m. in France), six Himars missiles were launched. Air defense units shot down five, (and) one hit the lock of the Kakhovka dam, which was damaged”, said a representative of the emergency services of the Kherson region, quoted by the Russian agencies.
The risk of strikes on this strategic infrastructure, developed along the Dnieper River, has been brandished since October by Ukraine and Russia, the two accusing each other of endangering the lives of “thousands” of inhabitants. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow two weeks ago of having “mined the dam”one of the largest in Ukraine, “lies” swept away by the Russian occupation authorities.
In recent days, the Russian occupation authorities have conducted in the villages around the site of the “evacuations” of civilians facing a “possible missile attack” on the dam, the destruction of which would lead “the flooding of the left bank” of the Dnieper River, according to the regional governor installed by Moscow in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo.
If the dam explodes, “more than 80 localities, including Kherson, will find themselves in the zone of rapid flooding”had for his part alerted, on October 21, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky. “It could destroy the water supply of a large part of southern Ukraine” and affect the cooling of the reactors of the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, which draws its water from this artificial lake of 18 million cubic meters, he was alarmed.