A summary of today's developments
A drone attack by Russian forces killed three people and injured 27 people, including three children, in Ukraine’s Odesa oblast region in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to Ukraine’s southern command. Emergency services said but the fire had been rapidly put out and 12 people were rescued from the building.
The UN’s top aid official Martin Griffiths has warned Ukraine’s humanitarian situation is “hugely worse” after the Kakhova dam rupture.
Counterattacking Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 1,400 metres at a number of sections of the front line near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the past day, a military spokesperson said on Saturday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that counteroffensive and defensive operations were taking place in Ukraine, but told reporters that he would not say what stage they were at.
The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that Ukraine’s forces have continued “unsuccessful” attempts in the past 24 hours to launch attacks south of Donetsk and in Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as in the area of the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Canada’s minister, Justin Trudeau, landed in Kyiv on Saturday and said Canada will be part of a multinational effort to train Ukrainian fighter pilots. He also announced C$500m ($375m) worth of military aid for Kyiv and said the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam is a “direct consequence of Russia’s war”.
German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Saturday that he planned to speak to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on the phone soon to urge him to withdraw troops from Ukraine.
Russian activists and dissidents from the Anti-War Human Rights Coalition say volunteers are reporting that 1,842 left bank residents including 338 urgent cases around Olekshy, and nearby, are being prevented from leaving by Russian authorities. They also include 148 children and 243 elderly people.
The latest intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence said over the past 48 hours “significant” Ukrainian operations have taken place in several sectors of eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have “likely made good progress” and “penetrated the first line of Russian defences”, the MoD added. However, in other areas “Ukrainian progress has been slower”.
Russia has fired missiles and attack drones at the central Ukrainian region of Poltava overnight, inflicting “some damage of infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield, according to the regional governor.
A £150m fund to help Ukrainians into their own homes has been announced by the UK government. More than 124,000 people have arrived in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
The UK will provide an extra £16m of humanitarian aid to Ukraine after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Iceland’s decision to suspend its embassy operations in Moscow “destroys” bilateral cooperation adding the action would elicit a “corresponding” response.
The southern reach of the Dnipro River is likely to return to its banks by 16 June after the breach of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam this week, a Russian-installed official said on Saturday. Vladimir Saldo said the water level at Nova Kakhovka, the town adjacent to the dam on the downstream side, had now dropped by 3 metres (10 feet) from Tuesday’s peak, Reuters reported.
German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as an operating base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency says it has put the last operating reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a “cold shutdown” as a safety precaution amid flooding from the collapse of the Kakhovka dam.
South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has briefed Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about an upcoming mission by African leaders to Russia and Ukraine to try and broker peace, Pretoria said on Saturday.
The UN has helped boost Russian exports of food and fertilisers, facilitating a steady flow of ships to its ports ahead of an important grain deal deadline. Top UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin as Moscow threatens to walk away from a deal allowing the safe export of food and fertiliser from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on 17 July if obstacles to its own shipments are not removed.
The Wagner group has been accused of stoking “anarchy” on Russia’s frontlines after one of the Kremlin’s military commanders claimed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries had kidnapped and tortured his soldiers during the battle for Bakhmut.
Ukraine’s strategic industry minister, Oleksandr Kamyshin, called the results of an audit of 4,655 bomb shelters across Kyiv “disappointing”.
The audit found that just 15% of shelters were suitable for use “without significant issues”.
Another 50% were “technically suitable”, said Kamyshin, but needed work to be “put in order”.
Of the shelters looked at, 44% were freely accessible, while another 21% would be opened to residents by guards within five minutes of an air raid alarm, Sky News reported.
The inspections were ordered by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, last week after three people were killed in the Ukrainian capital when they were unable to access a shelter during a Russian air strike.
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Summary
A drone attack by Russian forces killed three people and injured 27 people, including three children, in Ukraine’s Odesa oblast region in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to Ukraine’s southern command. Emergency services said but the fire had been rapidly put out and 12 people were rescued from the building.
The UN’s top aid official Martin Griffiths has warned Ukraine’s humanitarian situation is “hugely worse” after the Kakhova dam rupture.
Counterattacking Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 1,400 metres at a number of sections of the front line near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the past day, a military spokesperson said on Saturday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that counteroffensive and defensive operations were taking place in Ukraine, but told reporters that he would not say what stage they were at.
The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that Ukraine’s forces have continued “unsuccessful” attempts in the past 24 hours to launch attacks south of Donetsk and in Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as in the area of the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Canada’s minister, Justin Trudeau, landed in Kyiv on Saturday and said Canada will be part of a multinational effort to train Ukrainian fighter pilots. He also announced C$500m ($375m) worth of military aid for Kyiv and said the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam is a “direct consequence of Russia’s war”.
German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Saturday that he planned to speak to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on the phone soon to urge him to withdraw troops from Ukraine.
Russian activists and dissidents from the Anti-War Human Rights Coalition say volunteers are reporting that 1,842 left bank residents including 338 urgent cases around Olekshy, and nearby, are being prevented from leaving by Russian authorities. They also include 148 children and 243 elderly people.
The latest intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence said over the past 48 hours “significant” Ukrainian operations have taken place in several sectors of eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have “likely made good progress” and “penetrated the first line of Russian defences”, the MoD added. However, in other areas “Ukrainian progress has been slower”.
Russia has fired missiles and attack drones at the central Ukrainian region of Poltava overnight, inflicting “some damage of infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield, according to the regional governor.
A £150m fund to help Ukrainians into their own homes has been announced by the UK government. More than 124,000 people have arrived in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
The UK will provide an extra £16m of humanitarian aid to Ukraine after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Iceland’s decision to suspend its embassy operations in Moscow “destroys” bilateral cooperation adding the action would elicit a “corresponding” response.
The southern reach of the Dnipro River is likely to return to its banks by 16 June after the breach of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam this week, a Russian-installed official said on Saturday. Vladimir Saldo said the water level at Nova Kakhovka, the town adjacent to the dam on the downstream side, had now dropped by 3 metres (10 feet) from Tuesday’s peak, Reuters reported.
German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as an operating base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency says it has put the last operating reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a “cold shutdown” as a safety precaution amid flooding from the collapse of the Kakhovka dam.
South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has briefed Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about an upcoming mission by African leaders to Russia and Ukraine to try and broker peace, Pretoria said on Saturday.
The UN has helped boost Russian exports of food and fertilisers, facilitating a steady flow of ships to its ports ahead of an important grain deal deadline. Top UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin as Moscow threatens to walk away from a deal allowing the safe export of food and fertiliser from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on 17 July if obstacles to its own shipments are not removed.
The Wagner group has been accused of stoking “anarchy” on Russia’s frontlines after one of the Kremlin’s military commanders claimed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries had kidnapped and tortured his soldiers during the battle for Bakhmut.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has tweeted that he is in Kyiv to “reaffirm” Canada’s commitment to Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian people “as they maintain their resistance against Russia’s brutal war”.
Canada stands united with Ukraine. I’m in Kyiv to reaffirm that commitment to President @ZelenskyyUa and the Ukrainian people as they maintain their resistance against Russia’s brutal war. More updates to come – stay tuned.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) June 10, 2023
President Zelenskiy has also tweeted on Trudeau’s visit saying “in our victory, we will stand together just as we are standing now – on our way to defend life and people”.
I welcome Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau and representatives of his team to Ukraine.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 10, 2023
Despite all Russia's efforts to bow our people, Ukrainians continue to fight for independence and freedom. And in our victory, we will stand together just as we are standing now – on our… pic.twitter.com/sX5dUfP5kK
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South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has briefed Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about an upcoming mission by African leaders to Russia and Ukraine to try and broker peace, Pretoria said on Saturday.
Ramaphosa announced last month that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, had agreed to receive a six-member African delegation, expected to visit this month.
The delegation will group the presidents of the Republic of Congo, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.
Ramaphosa’s office did not specify when he spoke to Xi but said the Chinese leader “commended the initiative by the African continent and acknowledged the impact the conflict has had on human lives and on food security in Africa”, Reuters reported.
China says it is a neutral party but it has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive and for its close strategic partnership with Russia.
African countries have been badly hit by rising prices for grain since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Updated
Ukraine's offensive 'unsuccessful' in Donetsk and in Zaporizhzhia regions, says Russia
The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that Ukraine’s forces have continued “unsuccessful” attempts in the past 24 hours to launch attacks south of Donetsk and in Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as in the area of the eastern city of Bakhmut.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that Ukrainian forces had begun their expected counteroffensive in intense fighting in Ukraine, but that every attempted advance had failed, at a heavy cost in casualties. This has not been independently verified.
Updated
Russia has threatened to walk away from the Black Sea grain deal if demands to improve its own food and fertiliser exports are not met, deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said on Saturday.
The deal struck last July facilitates the “safe navigation” of grain, foodstuffs and fertilisers - including ammonia - for export to global markets.
Vershinin was quoted as saying:
We cannot be satisfied with how this memorandum is being implemented. Barriers to our exports remain.
While Russian exports of food and fertiliser are not subject to Western sanctions, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.
More on Ukraine’s counteroffensive coming in from Reuters:
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that counteroffensive and defensive operations were taking place in Ukraine, but told reporters that he would not say what stage they were at.
Zelenskiy shrugged and raised his eyebrows dismissively at a press conference in Kyiv when asked to respond after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that Kyiv forces had certainly begun their much-vaunted counteroffensive.
Updated
More news is coming in from Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to Kyiv.
Trudeau said the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam is a “direct consequence of Russia’s war”, Reuters reported.
Trudeau also said that Canada was seizing a Russian-owned Antonov cargo aircraft that landed in Canada last year and starting the process of forfeiting the aircraft to Ukraine.
Updated
Counteroffensive and defensive actions taking place in Ukraine - Zelenskiy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine but would not say which stage they were at, Reuters reported.
Updated
Canada to be part of multinational effort to train Ukrainian fighter pilots - Trudeau
Canada will be part of a multinational effort to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, President Justin Trudeau has said.
Trudeau, who is on a visit to Ukraine, also announced C$500m ($375m) worth of military aid for Kyiv.
Updated
Of course the Russians did it. Blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine last week was cowardly – Vladimir Putin’s long-planned response to what he fears is the start of Kyiv’s counteroffensive. Only Russians really had the means, motive and opportunity. Only this malevolent Kremlin regime would wilfully inflict human and environmental havoc on so vast a scale.
It’s impossible to prove at this point. And, of course, Putin’s loathsome sycophants lied about it, blaming Ukrainian self-sabotage. That’s what they do, these mobsters. They lied about the Russian-supplied missile that destroyed Flight MH17 over occupied Donbas in 2014. They lied about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Putin lied blatantly about invading Ukraine, right up to the moment he did.
Putin, Lavrov, Medvedev, Shoigu, Peskov and the gang have been lying through their teeth ever since – even as their absurdly neo-imperial “special operation” imploded, Russia’s soldiers died in droves, Ukraine’s cities burned, and reports of war crimes piled up like tortured bodies in a Bucha basement. It’s pathological. They lie to the world, to their people, to themselves.
Where is the international fury over Kakhovka? The condemnation of US and European leaders seems almost routine, leaving who is responsible open to question. Western media politely parroted Russian lies, giving time and credence to Kremlin disinformation, as if bogus editorial balance matters more than state murder.
You can read the full report here.
Updated
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that Iceland’s decision to suspend its embassy operations in Moscow “destroys” bilateral cooperation adding the action would elicit a “corresponding” response.
Iceland said on Friday the operations would be suspended from 1 August due to an “all-time low” level of commercial, cultural and political relations between the countries.
It said it had asked Russia to scale back its diplomatic activities in Reykjavik, Reuters reported.
The Russian foreign ministry said:
The decision taken by the Icelandic authorities to lower the level of diplomatic relations with Russia destroys the entire range of Russian-Icelandic cooperation.
We will take this unfriendly decision into account when building our ties with Iceland in the future. All anti-Russian actions of Reykjavik will inevitably be followed by a corresponding reaction.
When announcing its decision, Iceland said diplomatic relations had not been severed and that the embassy would be reopened once normal relations resumed.
Updated
The UK will provide an extra £16m of humanitarian aid to Ukraine after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
The money consists of £10m for the Red Cross Movement, £5m for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and £1m for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Boats, community water filters, water pumps and waders will be given to Ukraine and are expected to arrive there next week.
Updated
Ukrainian deputy foreign minister, Andriy Melnyk, tweeted “Welcome to Ukraine Mr Prime Minister” on the arrival of the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, in Kyiv.
He accompanied the post with a photograph of them shaking hands on the platform of a train station.
Welcome to Ukraine Mr. Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau pic.twitter.com/znK9DRYSCI
— Andrij Melnyk (@MelnykAndrij) June 10, 2023
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Ukrainian forces have made advances on parts of frontline near Bakhmut, official says
Counterattacking Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 1,400 metres at a number of sections of the front line near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the past day, a military spokesperson said on Saturday.
The advance is the latest in a series of similar gains reported this week by Kyiv near Bakhmut, which Russia said it had fully captured last month after the bloodiest and longest battle since it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“We’re trying … to conduct strikes on the enemy, we’re counterattacking. We’ve managed to advance up to 1,400 metres on various sections of the front,” the spokesperson for the eastern military command said when asked about fighting near Bakhmut.
Serhiy Cherevaty, the official, said in televised comments that Russian forces were trying to counterattack but that they had not been successful, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian forces, he added, had inflicted heavy Russian troop casualties and destroyed military hardware in the area.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify this.
Updated
Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency says it has put the last operating reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a “cold shutdown” as a safety precaution amid flooding from the collapse of the Kakhovka dam.
Five out of six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, are already in a state of cold shutdown.
Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear agency, said in a statement late on Friday that there was “no direct threat” to the Zaporizhzhia plant due to the breach of the Kakhovka dam further down the Dnieper River, which has forced thousands of people to flee flooding and also sharply reduced water levels in a reservoir used to help cool the facility.
The last reactor was put into cold shutdown on Thursday, Energoatom said.
The site’s power units have not been operating since September last year. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is due to visit Ukraine in the coming days.
Here are some more images of Justin Trudeau in Ukraine.
Updated
German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Saturday that he planned to speak to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on the phone soon to urge him to withdraw troops from Ukraine.
Speaking at a convention of the German Protestant church in Nuremberg, Scholz said he had spoken to Putin on the phone in the past. “I plan to do it again soon,” he added.
Updated
Here’s some more on Justin Trudeau’s visit to Ukraine.
Trudeau paid his respects at a memorial site in central Kyiv to Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed fighting pro-Russian forces since 2014, Reuters reported.
Nato member Canada, which has one of the world’s largest Ukrainian diasporas, has supplied military and financial assistance to Ukraine during the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February 2022.
Russian activists and dissidents from the Anti-War Human Rights Coalition say volunteers are reporting that 1,842 left bank residents including 338 urgent cases around Olekshy, and nearby, are being prevented from leaving by Russian authorities. They also include 148 children and 243 elderly people.
The coalition has sent a letter to the US calling for diplomatic pressure to be put on Moscow to allow humanitarian relief.
The letter says:
The Ukrainian government has appealed to the United Nations and the Red Cross, but currently did not receive any feedback.
We request you to use diplomatic means to ensure that the Russian side provides assistance to the affected residents of Oleshki, or that the Russian side stops hindering the work of the volunteers willing to help the victims.
“At the same time we would like to appeal to the Red Cross to interfere and provide humanitarian aid as it is near impossible for local volunteers to evacuate such an amount of people with the means available.
Updated
Justin Trudeau visits Ukraine
Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has arrived in Kyiv.
Footage from the BBC shows Trudeau in the capital.
Updated
A £150m fund to help Ukrainians into their own homes has been announced by the UK government.
More than 124,000 people have arrived in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
The new money will go to councils to help Ukrainian families into private rented accommodation and find work. It will also go towards continuing sponsorship arrangements, as many guests are in their second year in the UK.
The funding is being divided according to the number of Ukrainians in each nation – England will receive about £109m, Scotland £30m, Wales £8m and Northern Ireland £2m.
Read the full report here.
Here are some images coming to us from the wires.
Updated
The southern reach of the Dnipro River is likely to return to its banks by 16 June after the breach of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam this week, a Russian-installed official said on Saturday.
Vladimir Saldo, who heads the Russian-controlled part, said the water level at Nova Kakhovka, the town adjacent to the dam on the downstream side, had now dropped by 3 metres (10 feet) from Tuesday’s peak, Reuters reported.
“The pumping of water and garbage collection from the streets have started,” he said, adding that more than 6,000 people had been evacuated from the flooded districts of Nova Kakhovka and from Oleshky and Hola Prystan.
He said preliminary calculations by the Russian hydroelectricity producer RusHydro indicated the Dnipro would return to its usual course below the now-destroyed Kakhovka power station by 16 June.
This could not be independently verified.
Updated
Here’s more from Prof Snyder.
When asked whether he believed the counteroffensive would make good progress, he said:
Military history teaches us that these things are very, very difficult to predict, but I think a lot of it hangs on, just as it does generally in war, whether the Ukrainian advances generate political pressure in Moscow and whether that political pressure leads back towards panic in the Russian front lines.
I think in general, the Ukrainians have done better than people expect, and I would cautiously predict that they will do better than people expect this time as well.
Updated
Yale historian Prof Timothy Snyder, who has written about Ukraine and Russia, and also about tyranny and the erosion of democracy, said he did not believe the destruction of the Kakhovka dam would ultimately affect Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I don’t think … it will have fundamental implications for the Ukrainian counteroffensive for now.
It’s diverting Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers are evacuating people. Ukrainian soldiers are using their drones to drop water onto roofs instead of grenades into Russian tanks.
I think that will make a difference for a few days or a few weeks, but I think there are plenty of other directions the Ukrainian counteroffensive was meant to take, and remarkably, it’s still taking those.
He added it was “remarkable” that Ukraine is able to carry out a counteroffensive and a rescue operation at the same time.
Updated
Ukraine has penetrated Russian lines in some areas, says UK
The latest intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence said over the past 48 hours “significant” Ukrainian operations have taken place in several sectors of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces have “likely made good progress” and “penetrated the first line of Russian defences”, the MoD added. However, in other areas “Ukrainian progress has been slower”.
Meanwhile, Russian performance has been “mixed”, with some units “likely conducting credible manoeuvre defence operations while others have pulled back in some disorder, amid increased reports of Russian casualties as they withdraw through their own minefields”.
The update added: “The Russian Airforce has been unusually active over southern Ukraine, where the airspace is more permissive for Russia than in other parts of the country. However, it remains unclear whether tactical airstrikes have been effective.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 10 June 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 10, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/Sr1VlSp8Hy
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/lBSwEVN2pH
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Russia has fired missiles and attack drones at the central Ukrainian region of Poltava overnight, inflicting “some damage of infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield, according to the regional governor.
The attack using ballistic and cruise missiles also damaged eight private residential homes and several vehicles, but no casualties were reported.
– Reuters
German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as an operating base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Investigators have fully reconstructed the two-week voyage of the “Andromeda”, a white pleasure yacht suspected of being involved in damaging the pipelines that supply Russian gas to Europe.
It was pinpointed the yacht had deviated from its target to venture into Polish waters, using data from the Andromeda’s radio and navigation equipment, satellite and mobile phones, Gmail accounts “and DNA samples left aboard, which Germany has tried to match to at least one Ukrainian soldier”.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office and Poland’s Office of Chancellery of the prime minister did not immediately respond for comment.
The Washington Post reported this week that the US had learned of a Ukrainian plan to attack the pipelines three months before they were damaged by the underwater explosions. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy told German media that Ukraine did not attack Nord Stream pipelines.
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine:
Three killed and at least 10 injured in attack on Odesa region
A drone attack by Russian forces has killed three people and injured at least 10 more in Ukraine’s Odesa oblast region in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to Ukraine’s southern command.
Debris from the attack hit a high-rise residential building, causing a fire that has been extinguished. The blast wave also damaged surrounding residential buildings.
Emergency services said 27 people, including three children, were wounded, but the fire had been rapidly put out and 12 people were rescued from the building.
Russian forces used Iranian-made drones to attack the region, all of which were shot down by Ukrainian forces, according to reports.
Updated
The UN has helped boost Russian exports of food and fertilisers, facilitating a steady flow of ships to its ports ahead of an important grain deal deadline.
Top UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin as Moscow threatens to walk away from a deal allowing the safe export of food and fertiliser from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on 17 July if obstacles to its own shipments are not removed.
To convince Moscow to agree to the pact known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative – brokered by the UN and Turkey in July last year – a three-year agreement was struck at the same time under which UN officials agreed to help Russia with its own food and fertiliser exports.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said “the past months have shown tangible progress” on improving Russian exports, but added: “Challenges remain but we will spare no effort to overcome all remaining obstacles.”
Russia’s ambassador to Turkey said that while Moscow continues talks with the UN on the Black Sea grain deal, there are no grounds to extend it beyond 17 July.
The Wagner group has been accused of stoking “anarchy” on Russia’s frontlines after one of the Kremlin’s military commanders claimed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries had kidnapped and tortured his soldiers during the battle for Bakhmut.
In a video posted online, Lt Col Roman Venevitin also accused Wagner soldiers of stealing arms, forcing mobilised soldiers to sign contracts with Wagner, and attempting to extort weapons from the Russian defence ministry in exchange for releasing kidnapped soldiers.
For more details, here’s the full story:
Russia and Ukraine are tussling over control of Ukraine’s counteroffensive narrative as both Moscow and Kyiv reported heavy fighting in the south-central Zaporizhzhia region.
Russian president Vladimir Putin confirmed the Ukrainian offensive had begun but said the troops “did not achieve their goals in any sector”. Ukraine’s president Voldymyr Zelenskiy did not make direct reference to developments in the battlefield but praised his soldiers’ “heroism”.
While some bloggers have described the first sightings of German and US armour signalling that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was under way, there’s virtually no independent reporting from the frontlines.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is ultimately expected to involve thousands of troops trained and equipped by the west. The US announced an extra $2.1bn in security assistance on Friday, including air defence and ammunition.
Updated
Ukraine's humanitarian crisis 'hugely worse' after Kakhovka dam rupture, says UN aid chief
UN’s top aid official Martin Griffiths has warned Ukraine faces a “hugely worse” humanitarian situation than before after the collapse of the Kakhova dam.
This is a viral problem. The truth is this is only the beginning of seeing the consequences of this act.
Griffiths says an “extraordinary” 700,000 people are in need of drinking water and the flooding of agricultural land in one of the world’s most important breadbaskets will cause a “cascade of problems”, including lower grain exports, higher food prices around the world, and less to eat for millions in need.
Working mainly through Ukrainian aid groups, the UN has reached 30,000 people in flooded areas under Ukrainian control. Griffiths said he met with Russia’s UN ambassador for access to Russian-controlled areas in order to help flood victims.
Rescue people.
— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) June 9, 2023
Deliver aid.
Address the ecological and economic consequences.
Speaking to @UN_News_Centre, @UNReliefChief outlines the top priorities following the dam destruction in #Ukraine.
The overall message to those affected?
"We stand by you."
Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine, I’m Yang Tian bringing you the latest.
UN’s top aid official warns Ukraine’s humanitarian situation has been made “hugely worse” with the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Martin Griffiths said an “extraordinary” 700,000 people are in need of drinking water and flooding in one of the word’s critical breadbaskets could lead to lower grain exports and less food for millions in need.
More details shortly, in other key developments:
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had begun its counteroffensive against Russian troops but that efforts “so far have failed” after Moscow said it repelled several Ukrainian assaults. However, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy made no formal announcement of specific developments on the battlefield, but praised the “heroism” of his country’s soldiers fighting “tough battles”.
Water levels are gradually receding in parts of southern Ukraine that were flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, according to officials. Meanwhile, evidence is growing that the dam was blown up after seismic data showed there was a blast at the site in the early hours of Tuesday. Norsar, the Norwegian Seismic Array, said signals from a regional station in Romania pointed to an explosion at 2.54am. Norsar did not draw conclusions on who was responsible.
The US said Russia appeared to be deepening its defence cooperation with Iran and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it is using to strike Ukraine. Citing newly declassified information, the White House said the drones were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine.
The Wagner group has been accused of stoking “anarchy” on Russia’s frontlines after one of the Kremlin’s military commanders claimed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries had kidnapped and tortured his soldiers during the battle for Bakhmut. In a video posted online, Lt Col Roman Venevitin also accused Wagner soldiers of stealing arms, forcing mobilised soldiers to sign contracts with Wagner, and attempting to extort weapons from the Russian defence ministry in exchange for releasing kidnapped soldiers.
Iceland announced it would suspend work at its embassy in Russia as of 1 August, the first country to do so, and asked Russia to limit its operations in Reykjavik. “The current situation simply does not make it viable for the small foreign service of Iceland to operate an embassy in Russia,” foreign minister Thordis Gylfadottir said.
Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after the facilities are ready on 7-8 July, Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday in a meeting in Sochi, Russia.
Nato allies on Friday condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE).
Hungary said on Friday it had received a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia, a release that Ukraine welcomed while expressing concern that it had not been informed.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Joe Biden for his $2.1bn (£1.6bn) security assistance package. In a tweet, Zelenskiy said the contribution is “more important than ever” since the Kakhovka dam collapse.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, told Zelenskiy on Friday that Japan will offer emergency humanitarian aid worth about $5m (£3.9m) after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Japanese government spokesperson has said.
Ukraine’s domestic Security Service (SBU) said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine. A one-and-a-half minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation featured two unidentified men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian. One of the men said “Our saboteur group is there. They wanted to cause fear with this dam. It did not go according to the plan. More than they planned.”
The Kremlin on Friday accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilian victims of flooding caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine in repeated shelling attacks, including one pregnant woman. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the purported attacks “barbaric”. Russia did not provide any evidence to back up its claims.
Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin said on Friday that Crimea’s water supply will not be affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, and the peninsula had enough water reserves for 500 days. A canal from the destroyed reservoir fed drinking water to the peninsula. Kyiv cut access to the canal in 2014, after Russia illegally seized Crimea and claimed to annex it.
