Russia attempts to hit the dam in Kryvyi Rih with Kinzhal missiles. Russia has everything ready to blow up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Zelenskyi says. What is known about a strike on the Chonhar bridge.
Russia has everything ready to blow up Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi warned Thursday that Russia was preparing a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. All leaders, he said, are aware of what’s happening at the Russian-occupied plant. Russia has turned the site into a military base to launch attacks on nearby towns and avoid return fire.
“Ukrainian intelligence has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with the release of radiation. They have prepared everything for this,” Zelenskyi said in a video address on Thursday.
Radiation could spread to other countries, he added. Ukraine shares all information and evidence with international organizations and partners in Europe, the U.S., China, Brazil, India, Africa, and Arab states.
On June 20, Ukraine’s defense intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said that Russian troops additionally mined the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, namely the cooling pond.
Russia attempts to hit dam in Kryvyi Rih with Kinzhal missiles, Office of Ukrainian President says
Russia attempted to hit the dam in Kryvyi Rih, in Dnipropetrovska region, with Kinzhal missiles, advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter Thursday.
Russia is unable to “keep hold” of Enerhodar, a satellite city for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in the medium term, he said, and is considering “a large-scale terrorist attack” at the plant to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive and “create a depopulated sanitary gray zone, fixed for the next years, as part of the territorial status quo without ceasefire.”
Podolyak said Russian forces were additionally mining the plant, namely the cooling pond. “Whether the Kremlin decides to go ahead with this scenario today depends solely on the reaction of the global world. The red lines have to be defined. The consequences must be announced. Not tomorrow. Today,” he said.
RBC Ukraine, citing unnamed sources, earlier said that Russia possibly attempted to hit the dam in Kryvyi Rih overnight on June 22.
On September 14, 2022, Russian forces struck the dam in Kryvyi Rih with Kinzhal and Iskander missiles, causing water levels in the Inhulets River to rise, flooding more than 100 houses.
What is known about strike on Chonhar bridge
On the morning of June 22, a strike hit two road bridges near Chonhar that connect the Russian-occupied part of Kherson region with Crimea, disrupting an important Russian supply line. The strike on the Chonhar bridge severed one of the few links between mainland Ukraine and Crimea. Russian forces began to use another route through Perekop, closer to Ukrainian positions and possibly within range of Ukraine’s state of the art weapons.
Commenting on the strike on the Chonhar bridge, head of the joint press center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, Natalia Humenyuk said Ukrainian troops do not seek to destroy infrastructure, but to disrupt Russian supply lines. “Hot season lies ahead. [Russian occupying forces in Crimea] hope for a vacation season, it’s just that different people will vacation there,” she said.
When questioned on the strike, Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s defense intelligence, said: “Work is ongoing and will be continued. This is the planned work of the security forces, the defence forces, the resistance movement and the local population, which is waiting for the return of Ukrainian legal power in these territories. I can only say: to be continued…”
“The Chonhar bridge is critical for [Russia] moving troops, ammunition and equipment to and from Crimea, from the Zaporizhzhia direction,” Andriy Zahorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister, told CNN.
In an interview with the New Voice of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political analyst at the Information Resistance group said that a strike on the Chonhar bridge was “an attempt to cut the supply link to Melitopol” and a warning sign to the Russians that “fleeing from southern Ukraine will be difficult if the supply lines are disrupted”. The strikes on the Chonhar bridge echo the damage to the Antonivskyi bridge that eventually presaged liberation of Kheron, he added.
Terror as a nature of the Russian state. Ukraine in Flames #469
Ever since the onset of the unprovoked russian aggression, Ukrainian cities have been relentlessly bombarded with thousands of missiles and bombs. russian targets extend beyond military and critical infrastructure, they deliberately aim at civilian structures, including residential buildings. Faced with the resilience of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, russia in an attempt to instill fear, has resorted to intimidating society at large. Their strategy revolves around pressuring Ukrainians through acts of terror to demand a change of the position of the political leadership to stop resisting and negotiate. Watch Ukraine in flames #469 to find out about terror as the nature, goal and tool of the russian state.
Guests:
- Archil Tsintsadze, Security Policy Expert
- Ihor Seletskyi, Executive Director of the NGO “Euroatlantic Course”
- Volodymyr Tsybulko, Political Expert
