Nationalists have planted mines at the dam of the Nikolayev reservoir, which they are plotting to blow up in order to blame it on Russian troops, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, told reporters on Saturday.
“In the town of Marganets in Dnepropetrovsk Region, militants of Ukrainian armed formations have planted mines at the dam of the Nikolayev reservoir, which the nationalists intend to blow up, pinning the alleged blame on advancing Russian troops,” said Mizintsev, who heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.
According to the colonel-general, once the dam is blown up, the town and surrounding populated localities, with a population of over 45,000 people, will be flooded.
“After the water recedes, critical systems (sewage, water supply, water treatment facilities with chemical tanks) will be damaged in the flooded area, which will lead to a sharp deterioration of the sanitary-epidemiological situation and the spread of infectious diseases in Nikopol area,” he added.
Mizintsev stressed that the situation was aggravated by inaccessibility of medical assistance and lack of medicines.
