'You are weaklings waging a war against civilians,' says Zelensky in response to Russian missile strikes in Kryvyi Rih
On September 14, the Russian military launched a missile attack on Kryvyi Rih, the head of the city's military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul wrote. As a result, the water level in the Inhulets river rose by two or three meters. In a video address, Vilkul said that 112 private houses and summer cottages had been flooded. Controlled blasting of the dam took place overnight to increase the flow capacity of the river. By the morning of September 15, the flow of water in the river had decreased and its level began to decline.
In his address to the nation following the 203rd day of the war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the Russian Armed Forces' strikes on Kryvyi Rih. He made part of the statement in Russian, addressing the Russian military.
Your missile attacks today, Russian missiles targeting Kryvyi Rih, the dam of the Karachunivske Reservoir, on facilities that have no military value at all, in fact hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians - is another reason why Russia will lose. And not just this war, but history itself. History is written by people, never by savages. Who will you remain in history? All those who launch missiles. Those who came to our land. Weaklings. You are weaklings waging a war against civilians. Scoundrels who, having fled the battlefield, are trying to do harm from somewhere far away. You will remain terrorists whom their own grandchildren will be ashamed of.
Events show that the only way out for Russian soldiers is to surrender to Ukrainian forces. This is the only option that guarantees them life and treatment in accordance with all conventions. Every Russian soldier should have already understood that only in Ukrainian captivity will no one use him as cannon fodder in a war that Russia is obviously losing.
The president added that a missile strike on the Kryvyi Rih dam would not save the moral and psychological state of Russian soldiers. "They understood that the Russian command is incompetent, and that a rout awaits them in Ukraine on all fronts. Russia will not fix this with any terror, as terror only confirms the weakness of the one who resorts to it," Zelensky continued in Ukrainian.
According to Russian and Ukrainian sources, by striking the dam, Russian troops might have been attempting to slow down the Armed forces of Ukraine crossing in the direction of Kherson.