President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian servicemen blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station (HPP) in southern Ukraine at night from inside the facility. Zelensky announced this on his Telegram channel.

“At 02:50, Russian terrorists carried out an internal explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station,” he wrote.

Zelensky pointed out that about 80 settlements are currently in the flood zone.

Earlier, the acting governor of the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, said that Ukrainian troops could have attacked the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in order to divert attention from the failures during the “counteroffensive”. He noted that the consequences of the attack should not greatly affect the situation in the Kherson region.

On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had decided to conduct a military special operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the heads of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR and DPR).

The decision to conduct the operation was the reason for new sanctions against Russia by the United States and its allies.