Russia ‘plans false flag attack on hydroelectric dam to FLOOD Kherson’

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 is plotting to blow up the hydroelectric dam at Nova Kakhovka in order to flood Kherson and cover their retreat from the city, experts have warned

Sergei Surovikin, Putin’s new commander in Ukraine, has spoken about a Ukrainian attack on the dam – leading analysts to conclude he is laying the ground for a ‘false flag’ operation

The Nova Kakhovka dam has been hit by Ukrainian missiles in the past because it is topped by a road used to supply Putin’s troops, but they have stopped short of destroying it 

Ukraine has already struck the dam several times with long-range rockets, because a key roadway runs over it which Russia was using to supply its troops.

But Kyiv’s attacks stopped once the roadway was unusable. 

Blackouts will occur across Ukraine from 7am local time today, the country’s national grid operator said, and continue each day until 10pm. 

The power cuts will also affect heating, with people told to stock up on ‘warm socks and blankets and hugs for family and friends’ as winter approaches and temperatures dip below freezing overnight. 

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.

In an evening address, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned ‘Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities’ and urged the country to conserve electricity starting at 7am.

He added that the government was ‘working on the creation of mobile power supply points for critical infrastructure in cities and villages’.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko asked residents of the capital not to turn on major electrical appliances. 

He said: ‘Even a small saving and reduction of electricity consumption in each residence will help to stabilise the national energy system’s operation’.

Ukraine said it had downed ‘several Russian rockets’ over Kyiv in the third consecutive day of attacks, with Zelensky saying ten Iranian-made drones aimed at the city had also been destroyed Wednesday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said today that Russian president Vladimir Putin was using energy and hunger as weapons but has failed to break the West’s unity and will not achieve his war aims through scorched earth tactics.

He told the German parliament that the country had freed itself from dependence on Russian gas but was working to bring energy prices down, including by securing new gas delivery contracts from other countries.

Ukrainians have been told to prepare for four-hour rolling blackouts to start today after Russia blew up a third of the country’s power plants in a little over a week (pictured)

Firefighters extinguish a blaze at a power plant in Kyiv earlier this week, as Ukrainians are warned of blackouts after a third of it generators were blown up

In preparation for a battle to control Kherson, Russia began evacuating 60,000 civilians yesterday which occupation officials said would last six days. 

A Ukrainian representative called the evacuations the ‘equivalent of deportation’. The city has been in Moscow’s hands since the earliest days of the invasion.

Putin’s ‘aim is to create a kind of panic in Kherson and an image (to fuel) propaganda’, Sergiy Khlan said, adding Ukrainian forces were still pushing their counter-offensive southward.

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He said the Russians were using evacuations as a pretext to justify ‘their withdrawal from Kherson and more generally from the right bank’ of the Dnieper River.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said Moscow’s move was criminal.

‘Putin’s martial law in the annexed regions of Ukraine is preparation for the mass deportation of the Ukrainian population to depressed areas of Russia in order to change the ethnic composition of the occupied territory,’ Mr Danilov said.

Pro-Russian officials in the town of Oleshky across the Dnieper said residents from Kherson were already arriving.

Russia’s Rossiya 24 TV showed images of people waiting to board ferries, unable to use bridges damaged by Ukraine.

Vladimir Saldo, the Kherson region’s Moscow-installed head, told Russian state television that the city’s administration would relocate east of the Dnieper.

Putin’s introduction of military rule in the Moscow-controlled territories also gives additional power to authorities in Russian regions bordering Ukraine to quash dissent.

‘We are working on solving very complex large-scale tasks to ensure security and protect the future of Russia,’ Putin said.

Russia has been using a mixture of hundreds of missiles and Iranian-made suicide drones (pictured) to strike civilian targets and energy infrastructure 

The Iranian drones use a two-stroke motor – which witnesses say sounds like a lawnmower – to fly to their targets before the engine cuts and the plunge to earth, exploding on impact 

Separately, the secretary of Russia’s National Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said around five million people from Russian-held parts of Ukraine had ‘found shelter’ in Russia.

Ukraine’s resilience has won plaudits internationally and the European Parliament on Wednesday awarded the annual Sakharov Prize for human rights to ‘brave’ Ukrainians.

Zelensky tweeted in response: ‘Ukrainians prove dedication to the values of freedom, democracy every day on the battlefield.’

Meanwhile, in parts of Ukraine recently recaptured from Russian forces, repairs were under way before the onset of winter, with many residents still depending on humanitarian aid.

‘Apart from this, nothing is working,’ said Ivan Zakharchenko, a 70-year-old resident of Izyum queueing for aid in the square where Zelensky celebrated the town’s liberation just over a month ago.

Ukraine has recaptured occupied eastern territory in recent weeks. Its advance in the south, while far slower, has been gaining momentum.

There have been some advances on the Russian side too, with Moscow reporting Tuesday its troops had retaken territory in eastern Kharkiv region.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said it was working on building a ‘multi-level and layered defence’ in the Lugansk region.

Russian forces, meanwhile, continue to occupy the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency Energoatom, told AFP Wednesday that Russian forces were currently holding about 50 plant employees.

Russia’s strikes following Ukrainian battlefield gains have demolished large parts of Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter.

The government has warned of the risk of blackouts, saying about 30 percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed.

After strikes Monday and Tuesday, multiple explosions were heard in central Kyiv on Wednesday.

Kyiv and Western allies have accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones, with Ukraine saying it has successfully shot down 233 of them since mid-September.

The Kremlin and Iran have denied this, but EU foreign policy spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said the EU had ‘sufficient evidence’ and would prepare fresh sanctions on Iran.