Vladimir Putin plans to release rushing floodwaters through 80 Ukrainian towns by bombarding a dam with missile strikes after filling it with mines, it has been claimed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of gearing up to pummel the Kahkokva dam, which is situated outside Kherson along the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine.
In a videoconference with EU leaders last night, he said intelligence indicates the Kremlin's troops have been mining the dam ready for an attempt to blow it up.
Moscow has already been accused of firing a number of missiles at the facility in recent weeks.
The Russian-controlled plant has become a central stage of the Russo-Ukrainian war as Kyiv's troops close in on the invading army.
Zelensky echoed his previous allegations of how Russia has destroyed more than a third of his country's energy infrastructure.
He said it is Putin's intention to disrupt as many services as possible as the cutting winter approaches.
It's the first time since the start of the invasion that a nationwide energy limit has been rolled out in Ukraine - with civilians being asked to limit use between 7am and 11pm.
The destruction of Kakhovka would deepen the already grave situation, cutting off water supplies to the south.
It would also leave Europe's biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia - which is Russian controlled - without the cooling water it needs to prevent heat damage to the core.
He told EU leaders last night: "The dam of this hydroelectric power plant holds a volume of about 18m cubic meters of water.
"If Russian terrorists blow up this dam, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, will be in the zone of rapid flooding. Hundreds of thousands of people could be affected."
He also fears destruction of the dam would lead the North Crimean Canal to "simply disappear".
Some Russian analysts claim blowing up the dam would be counterintuitive as the regions snatched by Putin would be some of the worst affected.
The port city of Kakhovka is situated just outside Kherson Oblast, which was evacuated by Russian authorities this week.
Around 50-60,000 civilians were made to leave along with the city's proxy authorities.
Blood-soaked Gen Sergei Surovikin, who recently took over as Russia's chief military commander, justified the evacuation - which Ukraine has called forced deportation - claiming that Ukraine as planning to use "banned methods of warfare" in the city and the dam.
An independent US-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, says it's likely that Russia is "continuing to prepare for a false flag attack" at the hydroelectric facility.
It thinks Russia will blow it up after pulling out of Kherson before accusing Ukraine of flooding the river.
