VLADIMIR Putin's deranged plot to blow up a dam in Ukraine would unleash an 18million-ton wall of water and flood 80 towns and villages, it is feared.
President Zelensky warned it would spark a "catastrophe on a grand scale" endangering hundreds of thousands of people downstream including in occupied Kherson city.
Ukraine says it has information Russian troops have mined the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and are planning to blow it up as they retreat.
The dam – 100ft high and two miles long – holds back a reservoir with the same volume as Utah's Great Salt Lake.
Computer map models show the devastating impact of a breach on dozens of settlements along the Dnipro valley.
Huge areas on both banks would be totally flooded and parts of Kherson city would be under water.
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Zelensky said: "Destroying the dam would mean a large scale disaster.
"If Russian terrorists blow up this dam, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, will be in the zone of rapid flooding.
"Hundreds of thousands of people could be affected."
It would also destroy the water supply to much of southern Ukraine – including cutting off most of Crimea's water, Zelensky warned.
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And emptying the reservoir could leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant without water for cooling, creating the potential for a Chernobyl-style disaster.
Putin's ruthless new war chief Sergey Surovikin – known as General Armageddon – is said to have ordered the sabotage after being forced into a humiliating retreat.
A Ukrainian counter-offensive last month smashed through Russian lines on the right bank of the Dnipro and they are closing in on Kherson – symbolic as the first city to fall after the invasion.
The dam carries the only remaining road and rail bridge across the river after others were destroyed.
Russia has begun pulling its officials out of the city and also ordered the evacuation of 60,000 residents – which was condemned as "forced deportation".
Kirill Stremousov, the Kremlin's puppet leader in Kherson, denied the dam has been mined.
And General Surovikin claimed Ukraine is trying to destroy it with US-made missiles.
But Kyiv said Russia is preparing the ground for a "false flag" attack and intends to blame Ukraine for the disaster.
Russian media appeared to revel in the potential catastrophe today.
Pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda said a dam explosion would unleash a 16ft wave that would race down the valley at 15mph and wash away all villages.
Within two hours the water would hit Kherson city and flood vast areas over three days, it claimed.
It comes as widespread blackouts began across Ukraine to ration electricity.
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Around a third of Ukraine power infrastructure has been disabled by a devastating drone and missile blitz in recent weeks.
Putin – raging at his failure to win the war – is aiming to inflict maximum misery on civilians as winter hits.
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