MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. The operational and tactical situation following the dam collapse at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) has developed to the strategic advantage of Russian forces, Acting Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo said.

"From the military point of view, the operational and tactical situation favors Russian forces," he said during a Soloviev Live TV broadcast, speaking about how the Ukrainian military's attack on the Kakhovka HPP would affect the defensive capabilities of Russian forces in the region.

Saldo added that, by destroying the plant’s dam, Kiev sought to distract attention from the heavy losses suffered by the Ukrainian armed forces in the combat zone. But, at the same time, this catastrophe will not give any advantages to the Ukrainian troops from a tactical point of view, he said.

"They hurt themselves with this. Because the calculation was that blowing up the dam would give some strategic or operational advantages to the Ukrainian forces. <...> They will not be able to do anything. Our armed forces have an open space to see who is trying to cross [the Dnieper River] and how. <...> And it will be impossible to pass through the bed of the Kakhovka Reservoir if they try to do so," Saldo explained.

On Tuesday night, the Ukrainian military delivered a strike on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), presumably from an Olkha multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). The shelling destroyed the dam’s hydraulic sluice valves, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. In Novaya Kakhovka, the water level has already exceeded 12 meters. There are currently 14 settlements in the flooded area, and a total of about 80 villages may be inundated. Residents of nearby settlements are being evacuated, although authorities have said that no large-scale evacuations are necessary. The collapse of the plant's dam has caused serious environmental damage. Farmlands along the Dnieper River have been washed away, and there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal will become shallow.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack on the Kakhovka HPP as a deliberate act of sabotage by Ukraine. He added that the Kiev regime should bear full responsibility for the consequences.