Ukraine strikes dam in Kherson with US HIMARS missiles: Russian media
The Ukrainian military has fired US-made missiles at the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in the southern region of Kherson, causing damage to the strategic facility in the Moscow-controlled area.
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency said Ukrainian forces had fired six US-made HIMARS missiles at the crucial dam on Sunday, adding that five of them were intercepted by the Russian air defenses but one made it through and hit a floodgate.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine aren’t giving up on their attempts to destroy the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station and create the circumstances for a humanitarian disaster,” RIA Novosti said, citing local emergency services.
"Today at 10:00 (0800 GMT), there was a hit of six HIMARS rockets. Air defense units shot down five missiles; one hit a lock of the Kakhovka dam, which was damaged.”
RIA also quoted a local Moscow-backed official as saying the damage was not "critical."
"Everything is under control. The main air defense strikes were repelled, one missile hit the dam, but did not cause critical damage," Ruslan Agayev, a representative of the Moscow-installed administration of the nearby city of Novaya Kakhovka, told the agency.
Moreover, Russian state-owned news agency TASS quoted a representative of the emergency services as saying that a rocket launched by a US-made HIMARS missile system had hit the dam's lock and caused damage. The official said it was an "attempt to create the conditions for a humanitarian catastrophe" by breaching the dam.
The Ukrainian military had over the past weeks claimed Russian forces intended to blow up the strategic facility to cause devastating flooding.
The vast Kakhovka dam was captured by Russian forces at the start of their special military operation in the ex-Soviet republic in February. The key facility, which blocks the Dnipro river upstream of Kherson where Ukrainian forces have been making advances, has taken on vital strategic significance in recent weeks.
MG
