Evening summary
It is now approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Here is a round-up of the stories today.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Kherson region that has been impacted by flooding after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. In a post to Telegram, Ukraine’s president said the main issues discussed during the visit were “the operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential flood zones, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organisation of life support for the flooded areas”.
Russia on Thursday denied Ukrainian accusations that it backed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and discriminates against ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea, accusing Kyiv of “blatant lies” at the UN’s top court.
One of Russia’s longest-serving and most respected human rights campaigners Oleg Orlov went on trial on Thursday, facing the prospect of three years in jail if convicted of repeatedly discrediting Russia’s armed forces, his organisation said.
A group of leading Russian independent media organisations together with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have called on big tech companies to establish a working group to prevent Russia’s online information shutdown, the Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer reports.
The past few days have brought a very marked intensification of fighting south of Zaporizhzhia in the direction of the key town of Tokmak. While the situation remains highly confused, some Russian military bloggers have been speculating that this might be the beginning of the long anticipated Ukrainian summer offensive, the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont reports.
The cooling pond at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is in danger of collapse as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the draining of its reservoir, according to a French nuclear safety organisation, the Guardian’s Julian Borger reports.
The World Health Organization has rushed emergency supplies to flood-hit parts of Ukraine and are preparing to respond to an array of health risks including trauma, drowning and waterborne diseases such as cholera, officials said on Thursday.
Ukraine could lose several million tons of crops because of flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country, the Ukrainian agriculture ministry said on Thursday.
Drone footage shows the extent of flooding after the Ukraine dam collapse.
Russian shelling killed a civilian in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday as people were being evacuated because of flooding caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, Ukraine’s prosecutor general claimed.
Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said that Russia is “actively on the defensive” in the Orikhiv area of Zaporizhzhia region, a possible confirmation that Ukraine is attacking in that direction.
The investigations team of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has released a new video in which it claims to have found a son of Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whose name was previously not known to the public. Over the past year, Shoigu’s alleged son has been making cheesy pop songs in English while his father is sending tens of thousands of Russians to war in Ukraine, the Guardian’s Shaun Walker reported.
Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday that his forces had repelled overnight attempts by Ukrainian forces to break through the frontline in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
At least three people were wounded in Russian shelling of the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday as people were being evacuated because of flooding caused by the collapse of the nearby Kakhovka dam, police said.
The Russian embassy has said the responsibility for the “unfolding tragedy” in Kherson due to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam lies with Kyiv and western countries who have supplied Ukraine with weapons, in what they describe as a “terrorist plot” in a statement.
Britain announced a new sanctions package against Belarus on Thursday for its role in facilitating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including import bans and new measures aimed at preventing internet propaganda.
The Russian-installed governor of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said on Thursday that Ukraine had shelled an evacuation point for civilians affected by the Kakhovka dam breach in the town of Hola Prystan, killing two people, Reuters reports.
The Kremlin on Thursday accused Ukraine of shelling Russian rescue workers in the area flooded after the huge Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s Kherson region was breached earlier this week. It did not provide any immediate evidence for its assertion.
In an address on Wednesday evening, Zelenskiy said it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied parts of Kherson due to the flooding, urging a “clear and rapid reaction from the world” to support victims. He also severely criticised the UN and the Red Cross, who he said were not helping the relief effort. “Our military and special services are rescuing people as much as it is possible, despite the shelling. But large-scale efforts are needed,” he said. “We need international organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, to immediately join the rescue operation and help people in the occupied part of Kherson region.
About 230 square miles (600 sq km) of the Kherson region was under water on Thursday, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Prokudin said 68% of the flooded territory was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River. The average level of flooding in the Kherson region on Thursday morning was 5.61m (18.41ft), he said. He said almost 2,000 people had left flooded territory as of Thursday morning.
Thank you for following along. Read more of our live coverage on the blog tomorrow.
Updated
Russia on Thursday denied Ukrainian accusations that it backed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and discriminates against ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea, accusing Kyiv instead of “blatant lies” at the UN’s top court.
Ukraine has asked The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Russia to halt alleged discrimination against the Tatar ethnic group in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014.
At the second day of hearings at the ICJ, the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, Alexander Shulgin, said:
Ukraine is constantly turning to blatant lies and false accusations leveled against the Russian federation.
In the same case, Kyiv also says that Moscow violated a UN anti-terrorism treaty by equipping and funding pro-Russian forces, including militias who shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, killing all 298 passengers and crew in 2014.
On the first day of the hearing, Ukraine accused Russia of being a terrorist state and said it tried to erase the culture of ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea.
Russia denies systematic human rights abuses in Ukrainian territory that it occupies.
The court adjourned on Thursday but will hold two more days of hearings next week where Ukraine and Russia can react to each other’s submissions.
The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, is expected to rule on the case before the end of this year.
