Zelenskyy Urges West To Warn Russia Against Blowing Up Dam

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the West to warn Russia not to blow up a huge dam that would flood a swath of southern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the Nova Kakhovka dam and were planning to blow it up to cover their retreat.

"Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster," he said.

Zelenskyy called on world leaders to make clear that blowing up the dam would be treated "exactly the same as the use of weapons of mass destruction," with similar consequences to those threatened if Russia uses nuclear or chemical weapons.

Russia had accused Ukraine earlier this week of planning to rocket the dam. Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said Ukrainian forces had already used U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles against it, in what Ukrainian officials called a sign Russia could be planning to blow it up and blame them.