Russia-Ukraine war: Kremlin may set up false flag operation to destroy Kherson dam

A Ukrainian serviceman checks the trenches dug by Russian soldiers in a retaken area in Kherson region, Ukraine. Photo / AP

Russia may secretly blow up a dam and flood Kherson to frame Ukraine for mass deaths and cover its retreat, a US-based think tank has warned.

The military is anxious to leave the city because it has become too difficult to resupply its soldiers, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

“The Russian military may believe that breaching the dam could cover their retreat from the right bank of the Dnipro River and prevent or delay Ukrainian advances,” it said. The dam is part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant which lies about 56 kilometres upstream from Kherson, the only significant city captured by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24.

It provides electricity for hundreds of thousands of people.

Environmentalists have said that destroying the dam would send an “atomic bomb” of water crashing through villages and towns.

Vladislav, fighting with Ukraine in the Kherson region, told The Daily Telegraph that captured soldiers had mentioned destroying the dam.

”They have spoken of this,” he said. “I won’t even be surprised if they do... all they do is genocide.”

A Kherson resident, known only as Di, wrote on social media: “I have heard about this but I am not sure they will do it as it will flood the left bank, where they are now.”

Ukrainian artillery has damaged a bridge near the dam, part of a plan to cut Russia’s supply lines. But there is no evidence that Ukraine wants to destroy the dam, as Russian officials claim. Instead, the ISW said that comments made by General Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, suggested a “false flag” attack was being planned.

”Such an attack would also further the false Russian information operation portraying Ukraine as a terrorist state that deliberately targets civilians,” it said.

Earlier this week, Surovikin said that “difficult decisions” would have to be made around Kherson as Ukrainian forces advanced.

Russia used false flag attacks to justify its invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent escalation of its military campaign.

Now Kremlin propagandists appear to be setting up another one.

Alexander Kots, a military blogger, told a popular Russian TV news show this week that Kyiv planned to destroy Kherson with a weapon of mass destruction.

”I believe that this could mean a chemical weapons attack or the flooding of the area,” he said.

Pro-Russian officials in Kherson have ordered civilians to evacuate because of the impending battle for the city but Ukraine insists this is a smoke screen to forcibly remove people.

TV footage from the evacuation showed hundreds of residents lining up to take ferries across the river.

But Di said that she wasn’t going to leave. “I have no choice, I have to work. I need to help my parents,” she said. “Our army is already close and I keep my fingers crossed that we will be released as soon as possible.”