Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is planning to bomb a hydroelectric dam which could result in a "large-scale disaster".
On Thursday President Zelenskyy told European Union leaders that Russian forces had mined a dam at Kakhovka's hydroelectric power plant - which is under Russian control.
"According to our information, Russia has already prepared everything to carry out this terrorist attack."
Zelenskyy said the dam holds back close to 18 million cubic meters of water, and he warned if Russia goes ahead with its bombing it could see 80 Ukrainian towns flooded and hundreds of thousands of people affected.
News.com.au reports should the attack happen, the Institute for the Study of War said Russia would likely play the attack as a false flag operation which would be attributed to Ukraine.
"The Kremlin could attempt to leverage such a false-flag attack to overshadow the news of a third humiliating retreat for Russian forces, this time from western Kherson," the report outlined.
"Such an attack would also further the false Russian information operation portraying Ukraine as a terrorist state that deliberately targets civilians."
It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's first mobilisation since World War II and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not bluffing when he said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.
"If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will without doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people - this is not a bluff," Putin said in a televised address to the nation.
