MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops had been preparing for over six months to destroy the Kakhovka hydro-electric power plant (HPP) before delivering a final devastating strike, Novaya Kakhovka Administration Head Vladimir Leontyev said on Thursday.

As the mayor pointed out, "by strange coincidence," the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir was raised by 1.5 meters before the Ukrainian military crushed the HPP’s dam by its final strike on June 6.

"They carried out flights by drones over the area and they knew perfectly well where each rocket of the HIMARS system [the US-made multiple launch rocket system supplied to the Kiev regime by Western countries] would hit its target and they knew the HPP condition and delivered the final strike precisely against weak sections. That is, [they] had been preparing and deliberately destroying the HPP for over six months… And why was the water level raised by over 1.5 meters in the Kakhovka reservoir almost a day or two before that?" the mayor said in a live broadcast on Russia’s TV Channel One.

The Ukrainian military shelled New Kakhovka for the first time on June 11, 2022 and began massive bombardments of the Kakhovka HPP in July that year, he said.

"In August and September, they intensified significantly. As a result, the sluice gateway and the road pavement were impacted: exactly the facilities that were destroyed. During four months last year, HIMARS rockets surely ‘bolstered’ the Kakhovka HPP structural strength. What happened afterwards was the consequence, the last straw," the Novaya Kakhovka mayor stressed.

The Kakhovka HPP is part of the Dnieper cascade of hydro-electric power stations. Overnight to June 6, the Ukrainian military delivered a strike against the Kakhovka HPP, destroying the plant’s hydraulic valves and triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. The water levels reached 12 meters in the nearby settlement of Novaya Kakhovka and currently the flood water is subsiding. According to the regional emergency services, 35 settlements are in the flood area. Residents of nearby communities are being evacuated.

The Kakhovka HPP destruction has caused serious damage to the environment, agricultural fields have been washed away and there is a risk of the shallowing of the North Crimean Canal. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed the strike against the Kakhovka HPP as Ukraine’s deliberate subversive act. He added that the Kiev regime must be held fully accountable for all the ensuing consequences.