As Ukrainian forces prepared to drive Russian troops out of the captured city of Kherson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the West to warn Moscow against blowing up a dam that would flood a significant portion of southern Ukraine.
Zelensky claimed during a televised speech that Russian forces had explosives hidden within the massive Nova Kakhovka dam, which is holding back a sizable reservoir, and that they intended to blow it up.
"Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster," he said.
Russia has accused Kyiv of rocketing the dam and intending to destroy it. Ukrainian officials described the comment as a sign that Moscow would blow up the dam and blame it on Kyiv.
Neither party offered any proof to support their claims.
Zelensky urged world leaders to state clearly that blowing up the dam would be viewed "the same as the use of weapons of mass destruction," with similar repercussions to those threatened if Russia used nuclear or chemical weapons.
President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine is divided by the massive Dnipro, which can be several kilometers wide. Bursting the dam might cause a wall of water drowning villages below it and flooding Kherson, which Ukrainian forces seek to retake in a major offensive.
It would also destroy the irrigation system for much of southern Ukraine, including the Crimea that Moscow annexed in 2014.
The development is a reminder of a World War Two disaster at a different large dam farther upriver, which Ukrainian historians claim was dynamited by Soviet sappers as their troops retreated, causing floods that swept away villages and killed thousands of people.
US Defense Secretary and Russian Defense Minister hold talks.
For the first time since May, US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu spoke.
According to the TASS news agency, a top Russian diplomat said the call was necessary to clear up any misunderstandings.
Pentagon declined to provide further details beyond stating that Austin, who initiated the call, stressed the importance of open lines of communication in light of the conflict in Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces pushing to retake Kherson.
Image: Reuters.
Ukrainian forces are pushing towards the river's west bank to retake Kherson and encircle thousands of Russian troops.
Ukraine has enforced an information blackout on the Kherson front, but Russian commander General Sergei Surovikin indicated last week that the situation there was "already difficult " and that Russia was "not ruling out difficult decisions."
According to Ukrainian soldiers guarding a part of the front north of Kherson on Friday, there has been a dramatic decrease in recent weeks in the number of shelling coming from Russian positions located about 4 km away in a tree line that crosses a wide area of fields.
According to them, the Russians' gunfire had decreased and there had been no movement of Russian armor in the area, indicating a lack of supplies.
Only the sporadic crump of an exploding shell in the distance indicated that there had been fighting.
"They've been shooting less starting about three weeks ago, and their drones are less active," said Mykhailo, 42, who like other soldiers deployed with him, withheld his last name.
"It's probably been about a month there's been less shelling," agreed Sasha, 19. "This has to finish at some point. Their ammunition can't last forever," he said.
half of the nation's thermal generation capacity was hit by these attacks.
Image: Reuters.
Half of Ukraine's thermal generation capacity has been hit by drone and missile attacks - Ukraine Energy Minister.
To cut off Ukraine's power supply in time for winter, Putin started a campaign of attacks this month using drones and cruise missiles on electricity and water infrastructure in what the West and Ukraine describe as a campaign to frighten residents.
According to Ukraine's energy minister, at least half of the nation's thermal generation capacity was hit by these attacks.
Since Thursday, there have been calls for reduced electricity use around the nation as well as a few blackouts, which the government claims are necessary to repair power plants destroyed in the attacks.
Kyiv and the West have described this as a war crime and the purposeful targeting of public infrastructure.
Moscow has acknowledged attacking electricity infrastructure but insists that its "special military operation" is intended to weaken Ukraine's military, not harm civilians.
President Vladimir Putin.
Image: Sputnik/ AFP.
On Friday, the Kremlin avoided a question about whether or not President Vladimir Putin had ordered the Russian military to leave Kherson.
Up to 2,000 newly mobilized Russians, according to the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, have arrived in the area "to replenish losses and strengthen units on the contact line."
Tens of thousands of inhabitants from communities on the west bank, according to Russian-appointed officials, have started to be evacuated across the river.
They claimed Kyiv shelled a vessel overnight, killing at least four civilians. Ukraine said that it fired at a barge but that it did so only after a curfew when no civilians should have been outside.
According to Reuters, several buses carrying Kherson refugees arrived in the town of Dzhankoi in northern Crimea on Friday.
The city was reportedly subject to heavy shelling, according to a man who wished to remain unnamed.
"They are bombing bridges, everything," he said.
Putin has escalated the conflict since September as Russian forces experienced setbacks on the battlefield.
Image: Reuters.
The US sees nothing to show Russia wants to end aggression against Ukraine - Blinken.
U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken stated that Washington had not observed any indication that Russia was interested in ceasing its aggression against Ukraine and that instead, it was "doubling and tripling down."
Blinken said at a press conference on Friday, with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna that," every indication is that far from being willing to engage in meaningful diplomacy, President Putin continues to push in the opposite direction."
"We consider and will consider every
means to advance diplomacy if we see an opening to advance it by whatever means, of course, we'll always look at it," he said but added that Moscow was instead "doubling and tripling down" on its aggression.
In an interview earlier this month, Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, stated that his country was open to discussing ways to end the conflict with either the United States or Turkey.
However, he added that no genuine offers to negotiate had yet been made to him.
On Friday, the governments of Britain, France, and Germany demanded that the UN launched an investigation into claims that Russia deployed drones produced by Iran in its assaults, in violation of a Security Council resolution.
A day earlier, the US claimed that Iranian forces were in Crimea and had assisted in flying the drones.
Even though many of the drones have been shot down and recovered, proving their origin, Iran continues to deny providing them.
In televised statements to his Security Council, Russian President Vladimir Putin increased the authority of the regional governors and authorized the formation of a coordination council led by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to support his "special military operation, " which is now in its eight months.
Last month, Putin ordered the annexation of Russian-occupied territory, ordered the call-up of hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers, and threatened repeatedly to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.
Politics and Opinion.
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