SEVASTOPOL, June 6. /TASS/. Phone calls being made to residents of Sevastopol with information about the radioactive contamination of water after the Ukrainian military hit the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), as well as a potential evacuation, are fraudulent, the city's governor, Mikhail Razvozzhayev, said on Tuesday.
"The CIPSO (Ukrainian Center for Informational and Psychological Operations - TASS) is starting to exploit this situation with the Kakhovka HPP. <...> They call Sevastopol residents from different phones, introducing themselves as specialists from the Emergencies Ministry. They call to inform about the allegedly radioactive contamination of water and ask to get ready for evacuation of the population within 72 hours, if the radiation level in the water exceeds three times. They also call on people to stock up on iodine pills and bottled drinking water. Of course, this is a lie. There is no threat to Sevastopol, everything is quiet in the city," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
The governor added that in case of actual danger, the messages will go through all channels simultaneously.
Earlier, Razvozzhaev said that the damage to the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant will not affect the water supply of Sevastopol as the city uses its own reservoir. Its water reserves are at the maximum level.
Ukrainian forces shelled the Kakhovka HPP in the early morning hours on Tuesday, presumably using missiles fired from an Olkha multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). Slide gate valves on the plant’s dam collapsed as a result of the shelling, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. The HPP continues to collapse.