The Russian army is blowing up small hydraulic structures in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions in order to prevent the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said Vladislav Dudar, a representative of the Department of Environmental Safety and Mine Action of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“They are now blowing up small hydraulic structures in different settlements every day,” Dudar said at a round table at the Military Media Center. According to him, the consequences of these actions are not large-scale yet, but the agricultural lands of one or two villages suffer from each such explosion.
On June 11, the Ukrainian military claimed that Russian troops had blown up a small dam on a reservoir near the village of Novodarovka in the Donetsk region, causing flooding on both banks of the Mokrye Yala River. The river also flows through the village of Blagodatnoye, which had previously been liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“First, the invaders blew up the Karlovskoye reservoir, then the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, then they blew up other hydraulic structures in the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region … They resorted to this tactic when they again blew up the hydraulic structure on the Wet Yaly River. But this does not affect the advancement of the Defense Forces, ”said Valery Shershen, a representative of the Tauride Defense Forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the day before that the destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station thwarted Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kherson direction. “I’ll say a strange thing, but nevertheless: unfortunately, this [undermining the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station] thwarted their counteroffensive in this direction,” Putin said at a meeting with Russian military commanders.
According to him, the Ukrainian military purposefully delivered strikes from HIMARS at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. At the same time, Russia was “definitely not interested” in strikes against it because of the dire consequences for the occupied territories, Putin stressed.
The dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station collapsed on June 6. The most likely cause of its destruction was the undermining from the inside, experts in engineering and demolition say . The likelihood of a water breakthrough as a result of shelling from the outside is much lower, they note.
After the destruction of the dam, settlements on both sides of the Dnieper were flooded. According to official figures , the number of victims has reached 29 people. In total, 2,757 residents were evacuated in the Kherson region, including 263 children and 77 people with limited mobility. Rescued 707 people. 133 residents managed to be taken out from the left bank of the Dnieper. 14 evacuation points have been deployed.
Source : moscowtimes.ru
