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 their retreat from the city, a think-tank has concluded.

General 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 Russia public for a retreat from the region, said the blast would flood Kherson city and cause widespread damage.

Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War have concluded this is likely preparation for a ‘false-flag attack’ that would cover Russia‘s retreat and prove a distraction from its latest battlefield humiliation.

Breaching the dam would also be another blow to Ukraine’s already-battered energy grid, with people told to brace for rolling four-hour blackouts to start today after a third of the country’s power plants were blown up in a little over a week.

Ukraine has already struck the dam several times with long-range rockets, because a key roadway runs over the top of 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 affect not just electricity supplies but also 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, Zelensky warned that ‘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 Vitaliy Klitschko asked residents of the capital not to turn on major electrical appliances, saying ‘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 on the capital, with Zelensky saying 10 Iranian-made drones aimed at the city had also been destroyed Wednesday.

Russia – facing humiliation at the hands of Ukraine’s army – has turned to attacks away from the battlefield in an apparent attempt to force Zelensky to negotiate a peace deal that will favour Moscow.

The Kremlin’s latest defeat in combat now appears to be brewing in southern Kherson, where Putin’s new commander – Sergei Sorovikin – has begun laying the groundwork for a retreat from the city.

Civilian evacuations began yesterday with Volodymyr Saldo saying 60,000 will be forced to leave over the next six days, suggesting a battle for control of the city could begin within a week. 

A Ukrainian representative called the push by Russia to evacuate Kherson 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 that Ukrainian forces were still pushing their counter-offensive southward.

He said the Russians were using the 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 Defense Council, criticised Moscow’s move as 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,’ Danilov said.

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

With developments on the ground gathering pace, Putin’s introduction of military rule in the Moscow-controlled territories also gives additional power to authorities in southern 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.

Local officials said they were planning to move up to 60,000 civilians from Kherson over roughly six days.

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.