“We are preparing to respond,” stated Volodimir Zelensky.
The Ukrainian city of Kherson, in Russian hands, has been without water and electricity since Sunday after a bombing raid blamed on Ukrainian troops, who are launching a counter-offensive in the south of the country. “A terrorist attack, organized by the Ukrainian side, has damaged three concrete poles of power lines on the Berslav-Kajovka axis,” Russian occupation authorities said on Telegram. “Currently there is no water or electricity in the city or in some districts in the region,” she added.
This is the first time that Kherson, which was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the start of the Ukrainian invasion in late February and annexed by Moscow in September, has been deprived of such essential services. According to an emergency service representative, quoted by Russian news agencies, “more than ten cities in the region are without electricity.”
In recent weeks, Russia has evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from Kherson to turn it into a “fortress” against the advance of a swift Ukrainian counter-offensive. “We are aware that the terrorist state is joining forces and resources for a possible repeat of massive attacks on our infrastructure, especially energy,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said in his daily afternoon speech, referring to Russia. “Russia especially needs Iranian missiles. We are preparing to respond,” he added.
Until now, Ukraine has focused its attacks on Russian military supply lines and rarely bombed civilian infrastructure in occupied territories. Russian bombings, meanwhile, destroyed 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing numerous power and water outages in several regions, including the capital Kiev.
Kiev mayor Vitali Klitschko said he would not rule out a complete power outage in the capital. “We are considering different scenarios to support it and are prepared,” he said. Shortly before that, the Russian occupation authorities reported a Ukrainian shelling of the Kajovka dam, about 60 km from Kherson.
“Today at 10:00 (08:00 GMT) six Himars missiles were launched. Air defense units shot down five, including one that hit the Kajokva dam lock, which was damaged,” said a representative of the emergency services in the Kherson region. “A missile hit, but caused no critical damage,” said Ruslan Agayev, a representative of the Russian-installed government in Nova Kakhovka. The hydroelectric dam of this city, installed on the Dnieper River, supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Since July, the United States has delivered Himars missiles to Ukraine with much greater precision than the Soviet missiles used so far. Both Ukraine and Russia have been warning about the risk of bombing this strategic dam since October. Two weeks ago, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky accused Moscow of wanting to attack the dam with explosives. Russia called those accusations “lies.” Russian occupation authorities have been carrying out “evacuations” of civilians in the towns near the dam for three days, in light of a “possible rocket attack” that could lead to “the flooding of the left bank” of the Dnieper. Ukraine describes these evacuations as “deportations” of Ukrainians to areas less exposed to fighting or even to Russia.
Source: La Verdad
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