Due to the constant shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, three out of six turbines were stopped at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.

This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Attacks on the territory of the hydroelectric power station are carried out by GMLRS guided missiles, which are part of the US-made HIMARS MLRS arsenal.

“Due to the regular shelling of the Kakhovskaya HPP with GMLRS missiles from the American HIMARS MLRS by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in particular on August 12, three of the six turbines of the hydroelectric power plant were stopped.

The facility is operating in a pre-emergency mode, ”the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense says.

The military department warns that failures in the functioning of the systems for generating electricity and discharging water at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station may disrupt the operation of the unified energy system and adversely affect the cooling of the reactors of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

As a result, this will not only “cause disruptions in the supply of electricity, including to the territory temporarily controlled by Ukraine, but will also lead to an environmental disaster in the region,” the Defense Ministry stressed.

On August 13, after another shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Arseniy Zelensky, deputy director of the Kakhovskaya HPP for reconstruction, told reporters that the facility was operating “in a very dangerous mode.”

According to him, the full restoration of the hydroelectric power plant will take a year and a half.

  • Kakhovskaya HPP

“Currently, we have three hydraulic units in operation.

Before hitting the area of ​​the northern end, there were four hydraulic units.

But due to the fact that there was a danger of an oil spill as a result of falling and scattering of fragments, the sixth hydraulic unit was decommissioned to ensure the safety of the station,” he said.

According to the deputy director of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, if the Ukrainian army damages the dam, “big troubles” will inevitably arise at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, up to the “development of a nuclear catastrophe.”

"Massive Strikes"

The Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station is the lower and last stage of a cascade of six Dnieper hydroelectric power stations built in the Soviet years. 

Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities installed a dam near the Kakhovskaya HPP, blocking the flow of water to Crimea through the North Crimean Canal.

The water blockade of the peninsula was lifted by the Russian Armed Forces at the very beginning of the special operation with the occupation of the station and the territory adjacent to it.

Later, Russian engineers began to modernize the Kakhovskaya HPP.

Currently, the station provides regulation of the flow of the Dnieper River, the supply of electricity to the settlements of the Kherson region, as well as water supply to the agricultural regions of southern Ukraine and the northern regions of Crimea.

Ukrainian troops did not fight for the hydroelectric power plant, but after leaving, they repeatedly made attempts to inflict critical destruction on it.

For example, in April, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched two Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles towards the object.

Russian air defense forces intercepted both munitions.

Shelling of the Kakhovka HPP increased in the summer, when the Kyiv regime received from the United States HIMARS systems with ammunition capable of hitting targets at ranges of up to 80 km.

Since then, both the infrastructure of the station and residential buildings in Novaya Kakhovka have been under attack.

As Nikolai Kostikin, an expert at the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, noted in an interview with RT, recently the Ukrainian army has been releasing a significant part of the GMLRS missiles supplied by the Americans at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.

  • Kakhovskaya HPP

  • RIA News

“The Ukrainian military and nationalists consistently hit the same location with almost everything they have.

These are really massive blows, and it is almost impossible to repel them completely.

Russian air defense systems intercept most of the missiles.

They are working to the limit, otherwise the ecological catastrophe would have already happened,” said Kostikin.

The authorities of the Kherson region qualify the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as terrorism.

In their opinion, Kyiv seeks to destroy what it no longer hopes to return.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the most severe environmental consequences will come if the Armed Forces of Ukraine manage to destroy the dam.

Its destruction will lead to the uncontrolled release of Dnieper water, and the settlements of the Kherson region will face the risk of flooding.

"Criminal attacks"

Also, the Russian Defense Ministry fears for the safe operation of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is located higher along the Dnieper - on the banks of the Kakhovka reservoir.

According to experts, if a radioactive leak occurs at the station, then the Dnieper water in the Zaporozhye, Kherson regions and Crimea will become completely unsuitable for irrigation and consumption.

Recall that in recent weeks, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been intensively shelling the territory of the ZNPP and the city of Energodar.

The military-civilian administration (MAC) of the Zaporozhye region is confident that the Kyiv regime is deliberately inflicting these strikes with the aim of subsequently blaming Russia.

To date, ZNPP is operating normally.

However, the CAA fears that further escalation could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.

To avoid it, local authorities allow the option of suspending the operation of the station.

The Russian authorities have repeatedly drawn the attention of the international community and the West to the inadmissibility of shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

On August 11, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council, once again called on Western countries to “reason” the Kyiv regime.

According to the diplomat, the Ukrainian authorities can take "monstrous and reckless steps, the consequences of which will come back to haunt far beyond the borders of Ukraine."

“Unfortunately, this is exactly what is happening now.

Kyiv's criminal attacks on nuclear infrastructure facilities are pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe comparable in scale to that of Chernobyl," Nebenzya said.

  • Zaporozhye NPP

  • RIA News

According to the diplomat, earlier the Armed Forces of Ukraine staged provocations, sending saboteurs and using shock UAVs, and now Ukrainian troops are hitting the ZNPP from heavy artillery, which is located on the right bank of the Dnieper in the settlements of Nikopol, Marganets and Tomakovka controlled by Kyiv.

With shelling, the Kyiv regime is destroying the ZNPP infrastructure and trying to intimidate the staff.

In addition, the Ukrainian army aims its missiles at concrete storage facilities for radioactive waste.

Nebenzya said that so far Kyiv has not been able to hit them, but because of the strikes, the station has stopped working in a stable mode.

The Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN demanded that the Ukrainian authorities immediately stop the shelling and guarantee the safety of the IAEA mission, which is to visit the ZNPP.

Nebenzya also recalled that even at the beginning of the special operation, the Kyiv regime refused to cooperate with the Russian Federation and the IAEA in the field of monitoring the situation at nuclear power plants.

According to the diplomat, even then the Ukrainian leadership hatched "dangerous plans to disrupt the normal functioning of the Zaporozhye and Chernobyl nuclear power plants and blame Russia for this."

On August 14, the Russian Foreign Ministry again demanded that Kyiv stop strikes on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant so that IAEA specialists could work there normally.

“We believe that this IAEA visit should not be delayed, it would be good to hold it in late August or early September, but not everything depends on us,” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, said in an interview with TASS on August 14.

On August 9, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that the Kyiv regime had intensified shelling of the ZNPP, taking advantage of the fact that the Security Department of the UN Secretariat disrupted the trip of experts to the plant.

Responsibility for the situation in Moscow was placed personally on UN Secretary General António Guterres, accusing him of “lack of will” and unwillingness to send any signals to the Ukrainian leadership.

In an interview with RT, political scientist Andrei Suzdaltsev noted that the crisis around the ZNPP and the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station clearly demonstrated the UN's unwillingness to perceive objective reality and go into conflict with the West.

“By its behavior, the UN proves that the world organization and almost all international structures are controlled by Washington.

Now the United States is condoning Ukrainian shelling,” Suzdaltsev said.

The CAA of the Zaporozhye region connects the strikes on the ZNPP and adjacent territories with the desire of the region to hold a referendum on joining Russia. 

“I don’t think that the regime of Volodymyr Zelensky is able to disrupt the referendums in Zaporozhye and the Kherson region.

However, it can seriously harm these regions, intimidate people, including by shelling the most important energy facilities.

The Ukrainian authorities are doing this, realizing that no one in the UN and in the West will really pull them up, ”said Suzdaltsev.