Summary
The time is approaching 9pm in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. This is a round up of the news stories from today.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin told a conference in Sochi on Friday that Ukraine had begun its expected counteroffensive against Russian forces, but without success.
Julian Borger, our world affairs editor, says there is growing evidence that the Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up after the publication of seismic data showed there was a blast at the site in the early hours of Tuesday morning. 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.
Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after the facilities are ready on 7-8 July, President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday in a meeting in Sochi, Russia.
Ukraine’s domestic security agency said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in Kherson region. It posted a 90-second audio clip of the alleged conversation on its Telegram channel.
Nato allies on Friday condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE).
The White House said on Friday that Russia appeared to be deepening its cooperation with Iran in “full-scale defence partnership” and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it is using to strike Ukraine.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a €200m (£170m/$215m) loan to Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsya to help improve links to the EU, officials said on Friday.
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.
The Netherlands’ highest court ruled Friday that a priceless collection of Crimean gold must be handed over to Ukraine, the latest move in a legal tug-of-war spanning almost a decade.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the US President 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.
Iceland has announced that from 1 August it will suspend operations of its embassy in Moscow.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Friday that Japan will offer emergency humanitarian aid worth about $5m (£3.9m) after the bursting of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Japanese government spokesperson has said.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Friday that it had summoned the Japanese ambassador over Tokyo’s decision to supply military equipment to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 10.5% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period a year ago, the economy ministry said on Friday.
Eight people are dead in Russian-held territory and more than 5,800 have been evacuated from their homes as a result of the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, a senior Russian-appointed official said on Friday. Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Kherson province, which Russia claims to have unilaterally annexed, accused Ukraine of continuing to shell rescuers on the Russian-controlled left bank of the Dnipro River, Reuters reports.
The Ukrainian interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on Friday four people had died and 13 were missing as a result of flooding in the southern region of Kherson after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Ukraine’s domestic Security Service (SBU) said earlier 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 Nova 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.
Vitalii Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, has posted to Telegram to say that for two hours there has been no rise in the level of the Inhulets River, and “accordingly, there is no water rise throughout the region”.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said one person had been killed, three were wounded, and four buildings were destroyed from falling debris after Russia’s latest attack. Ukraine’s military shot down four cruise missiles and 10 attack drones during a Russian air strike overnight, the air force said in a statement. It said Russian forces had launched 16 drones and six cruise missiles during the attack, and that two other cruise missiles had struck a civilian object in central Ukraine.
Zelenskiy on Thursday hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. “There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam. “But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.
On Friday, deputy defence minister Hannah Maliar said Ukrainian troops were “conducting active combat operations in several areas of the Bakhmut direction” and that Russian troops were “conducting defensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction” where “positional battles continue”.
Russia’s army on Friday reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, saying more than 21 Ukrainian tanks had been destroyed in battles across key sections of the frontline. A spokesperson for Russia’s Vostok group of forces said 13 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed in battles in the Zaporizhzhia region and eight in the Donetsk region. It reported artillery, drone and infantry battles. The claims have not been independently verified.
Evgeny Balitsky, the Russian-imposed acting governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, has announced the formation of a people’s militia.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 33-year-old man was wounded when “Shahed” drones struck an infrastructure object in Bohodukhiv.
Voronezh regional governor Alexander Gusev has said three people were wounded in an attack on the southern Russian city of Voronezh when a drone hit a residential building.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has said it has fended off an aerial attack on the city of Belgorod, with air defence taking out two targets.
Sweden will allow Nato to base troops on its territory even before it formally joins the defence alliance, the prime minister and defence minister said on Friday. “The government has decided that the Swedish armed forces may undertake preparations with Nato and Nato countries to enable future joint operations,” the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and the defence minister, Pål Jonson, said.
Thank you for following along.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the US President 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.
Thank you @POTUS for the $2.1 billion security assistance package. We appreciate the strong leadership support of 🇺🇦 in our fight against Russian aggression from the 🇺🇸 people. Amid unprecedented 🇷🇺 terror and ecocide due to the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP, this is more…
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 9, 2023
The end of the dominance of the US dollar is nigh as the Chinese yuan rises and the rest of the world sees the peril of the west’s failed attempt to bring Russia to its knees over Ukraine, one of Moscow’s most powerful bankers told Reuters.
Andrei Kostin, the CEO of state-controlled VTB, Russia’s second largest bank, said the crisis was ushering in sweeping changes to the world economy, undermining globalisation just as China was taking on the mantle of a top global economic power.
Asked if he thought the world was in a new cold war, Kostin said that it was now a “hot war” that was more dangerous than the cold war.
The US and the EU, he said, would lose from moves to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian sovereign assets as many countries were moving to settlements outside the greenback and the euro while China was moving towards a removal of currency restrictions.
“The long historical era of the dominance of the American dollar is coming to an end,” Kostin, 66, told Reuters. “I think that the time has come when China will gradually remove currency restrictions.”
Updated
The Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh is in Odesa, where he said the water by the shore is full of oily, bubbly detritus.
Images show some a fraction of the potential environmental damage, only three and half days after the Kakhovka dam was burst, he said in a tweet.
Odesa, where the water by the shore is full of oily, bubbly detritus. A fraction of the environmental damage, three and half days after the dam was burst pic.twitter.com/2O2wSLuHX3
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) June 9, 2023
Keep up to date with his reporting here.
These images from the wires show the damage done to a block of flats in Voronezh, Russia today after a reported drone attack.
In a Telegram post Friday, the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said the drone attack injured three residents who were hurt by shards of glass from broken windows.
These claims have not been independently verified.
The Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the prime minister of the Netherlands for aid after the Kakhovka dam disaster displaced thousands in the Kherson region.
Zelenskiy tweeted that he had a phone call with Mark Rutte, where he also praised the decision of the supreme court of the Netherlands to transfer the “Scythian gold” to Ukraine and not return the ancient Crimean artefacts to Russia.
I had a phone call with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte @MinPres. Thank you for the humanitarian aid to eliminate the consequences of the Russian act of terrorism at the Kakhovka dam. I spoke about the current situation in the area of the man-made disaster and on the…
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 9, 2023
Sky News reported that Royal Air Force Typhoons have intercepted Russian aircrafts flying close to Nato airspace twice in the last 24 hours. You can see the report below:
BREAKING: RAF Typhoons have intercepted Russian aircraft flying close to NATO airspace twice in 24 hourshttps://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 9, 2023
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/pZZQ9qETVb
The Netherlands’ highest court ruled Friday that a priceless collection of Crimean gold must be handed over to Ukraine, the latest move in a legal tug-of-war spanning almost a decade.
The treasures, dubbed the “Scythian Gold”, were loaned to the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam just before Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.
Both Ukraine and four museums in the occupied peninsula have demanded that the treasures be returned to them, but the Allard Pierson Museum said it would not do so until a judge ruled to which party it should go.
The Dutch supreme court said:
The Allard Pierson Museum must hand over the art treasures to the State of Ukraine and not to the Crimean museums.
The judges said that Ukraine had a “legitimate interest in protecting its cultural heritage.”
In previous court rulings in Kyiv’s favour, Moscow reacted with fury, calling it a politically motivated decision which “set a dangerous precedent”.
The Allard Pierson Museum said it did not yet know when the treasures will be returned to Ukraine.
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.
The PoW were from the western part of Ukraine that borders Hungary, according to both the Russian Orthodox church, which said it had assisted in the release, and Hungarian deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjen.
A post on Semjen’s official Facebook page said:
This is my human and patriotic duty … We have brought back from Moscow 11 prisoners of war from Transcarpathia.
Ukraine has said it had not been informed about the prisoners’ release. The foreign ministry said it had asked Hungary’s representative in Ukraine to grant immediate access to them.
This image, provided by Maxar Technologies and released by The White House, shows an industrial site several hundred miles east of Moscow where US intelligence officials believe Russia – with Iran’s help – is building a factory to produce attack drones for use in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
US officials believe the plant in Russia’s Alabuga special economic zone could be operational by early next year.
Ukrainian counteroffensive has started, says Putin
The Russian President Vladimir Putin told a conference in Sochi on Friday that Ukraine had begun its expected counteroffensive against Russian forces, but without success.
In footage posted on Telegram, he can be heard saying:
The offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has begun. This is evidenced by the use of strategic reserves.
Ukrainian troops did not achieve their goals in any sector – thanks to the courage of Russian soldiers, proper organisation of troops.
These claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a €200m (£170m/$215m) loan to Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsya to help improve links to the EU, officials said on Friday.
The Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said he had signed an agreement that would help accelerate the modernisation of railway links and upgrade rolling stock.
In a statement, he said:
Given the restrictions created by the aggressor for the Ukrainian Black Sea ports’ operation, the ministry pays special attention to the development of road and rail logistics on the western borders.
Ukraine’s export-led economy shrank by about one-third last year as Russia’s invasion disrupted supply chains and logistics and blocked access to the ports that used to ship most of the country’s imports and exports, Reuters reports.
The EBRD said in a statement:
Despite the impact of the war, Ukrzaliznytsya has maintained cargo and passenger transportation operations if at reduced capacity.
The White House said on Friday that Russia appeared to be deepening its cooperation with Iran in “full-scale defence partnership” 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 or uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The White House spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement:
Russia has been using Iranian UAVs in recent weeks to strike Kyiv and terrorise the Ukrainian population, and the Russia-Iran military partnership appears to be deepening.
We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to produce Iranian UAVs from inside Russia.
Kirby said the US had information that Russia was receiving materials from Iran required to build a drone manufacturing plant that could be fully operational early next year.
He added:
We are releasing satellite imagery of the planned location of this UAV manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga special economic zone.
Russia has been offering Iran unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics, and air defense.
This is a full-scale defence partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors, and to the international community. We are continuing to use all the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities including by sharing this with the public and we are prepared to do more.
Kirby said the transfers of drones constituted a violation of UN rules and the US would seek to hold the two countries accountable, imposing sections if necessary.
The New York Times is reporting that a senior Biden administration official has said that US spy satellites detected an explosion at the Kakhovka dam just before it collapsed.
It writes:
The official said that satellites equipped with infrared sensors detected a heat signature consistent with a major explosion just before the dam collapsed.
American intelligence analysts suspect Russia was behind the dam’s destruction … but he added that US spy agencies still do not have any solid evidence about who was responsible.
The administration official did not rule out the possibility that prior damage to the dam or mounting water pressure might have contributed to the collapse.
Experts had cautioned earlier this week that the available evidence was very limited, but they said that a blast in an enclosed space, with all of its energy applied against the structure around it, would do the most damage. An external detonation by a bomb or missile would exert only a fraction of its force against the dam, and would require an explosive many times larger to achieve a similar effect.
Updated
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, has issued a broadside opinion piece criticising Ukraine for the unwillingness of Kyiv to engage with calls for an investigation into the collapse of the Kakhovka dam.
Sticking to Russia’s line that the dam, situated on Russian-occupied territory, was attacked or sabotaged by Ukrainian forces, she called Ukraine’s foreign minister “big bad Kuleba” and described Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, as “odious”.
Zakharova said:
The Kyiv regime never even gave the UN the lists of persons it declared dead in Bucha [referring to the discovery of mass graves after the Russian occupation during its failed offensive to capture Kyiv]. Fat chance they’ll want an investigation of the terrorist attack on a power plant!
Moreover, who are the terrorists and their sponsors, and who wants an investigation? Remember how the US and their vassals blocked the Russian resolution at the UN, which called for an independent investigation into the explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines?
Zakharova’s comments come as Norsar, the Norwegian Seismic Array, said signals from a regional station in Romania pointed to an explosion occuring at the dam at 2.54am.
Updated
Nato allies on Friday condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE).
“Russia’s decision to withdraw from the CFE treaty is the latest in a series of actions that systematically undermines Euro-Atlantic security,” Reuters reports the alliance said in a statement.
“Russia’s decision further demonstrates Moscow’s continued disregard for arms control,” it said.
Updated
A grainy black-and-white gunsight video Russia released this week to bolster a claim its military blew up some of Ukraine’s most fearsome tanks actually documented the destruction of a tractor, according to a visual analysis by the Associated Press.
The Russian ministry of defence posted a video Tuesday on the social media network Telegram with text saying it showed “footage of the destruction of foreign armored vehicles, including Leopard tanks”.
The video was shown extensively by Russian state-controlled broadcasters and news sites, which said it was recorded from the thermal imaging system of a KA-52 Alligator attack helicopter. Several black silhouettes of vehicles can be seen, before the helicopter launches a guided missile that strikes one, causing it to explode.
The visual analysis by the AP shows that the vehicles seen in the video appear to be large pieces of stationary farm machinery parked in a field, specifically a self-propelled sprayer and two combines used to harvest corn and wheat.
The vehicle struck by the Russian missile has four large wheels and sits high off the ground. Leopard 2 tanks are low slung and have treads, like a bulldozer.
Tank crews operating at the frontlines typically conceal themselves in vegetation or behind buildings, emerging only to move and shoot, two experts in military vehicles told the AP. It would be highly unusual for tanks to be parked in the open, where they make easy targets for enemy gunners, they said.
Valentin Châtelet, a research associate at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, also said the objects in the video were clearly not Leopard tanks.
“They are pointing their thermal camera at three vehicles that appear to be harvesters,” said Châtelet, who is based in Brussels. “And the first target they’re hitting is most likely a sprayer.”
Updated
Iceland has announced that from 1 August it will suspend operations of its embassy in Moscow.
The country only operates 18 bilateral embassies in foreign capitals, and said in a statement:
This is not an easy decision as Iceland has enjoyed rich relations with the people of Russia since our independence in 1944. However, the current situation simply does not make it viable for the small foreign service of Iceland to operate an embassy in Russia. I hope that conditions will someday allow for us to have normal and fruitful relations with Russia, but that depends on decisions taken by the Kremlin.
Iceland said it had accordingly asked Russia to lower the level of diplomatic representation at its embassy in Reykjavík.
The move has been welcomed by Ukraine. Its foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted to say:
Russia must see that barbarism leads to complete isolation. I encourage other states to follow Iceland’s example.
I thank @ThordisKolbrun for Iceland’s decision to suspend operations of its embassy in Moscow and request Russia to limit the operations of its embassy in Reykjavík. Russia must see that barbarism leads to complete isolation. I encourage other states to follow Iceland’s example.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) June 9, 2023
Updated
Here are some images from the wires of debris from flooded houses that has been washing up along beaches in Odesa, more than 145km (90 miles) away from the Kakhovka dam, which was breached earlier this week.
Reuters has a quick snap that Belgium will supply Ukraine with 105mm artillery rounds worth €32.4m (£27.8m/$35m), citing a spokesperson for Belgium’s defence ministry.
Here is a little bit more from Julian Borger’s report on claims that seismic data backs up the theory that the Kakhovka dam was deliberately blown up, rather than simply collapsed. He writes:
Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration that Kyiv’s account of the dam’s destruction, that it was blown up from inside by Russian forces, has not so far been confirmed by US, UK or other intelligence agencies.
Ihor Syrota, the director general of the Ukrainian hydroelectric power company Ukrhydroenergo, dismissed suggestions the dam could have been destroyed as result of Ukrainian shelling or catastrophic structural failure as Russian propaganda.
“The plant was designed to withstand a nuclear strike,” Syrota told the Guardian in an interview in Kyiv. “To destroy the plant from the outside, at least three aircraft bombs, each of 500kg, would have had to be dropped on the same spot. The station was blown up from the inside.”
He added: “They brought hundreds of kilograms of explosives there. Ukraine reported last year that the station was mined. The Russians were just waiting for the right day to blow it up.”
Read more here: Seismic data adds to evidence that Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam was blown up
The main centre of fighting is still in Ukraine’s east, Kyiv said on Friday, as clashes in the south have prompted speculation that Ukrainian forces could have launched a long-awaited offensive.
The Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram:
The situation is tense in all areas of the frontline. The east is the epicentre.
The enemy continues to concentrate its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka directions.
The deputy minister gave few details on the situation in southern Ukraine.
Moscow says fighting has intensified since Thursday in the Zaporizhzhia region, particularly around the small town of Orikhiv, AFP reports.
Updated
Nuclear weapons to be deployed in Belarus from July, says Putin
Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after the facilities are ready on 7-8 July, President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday in a meeting in Sochi, Russia.
According to a readout from the Kremlin, Putin said:
So everything is according to plan, everything is stable.
The two leaders had previously agreed the plan to deploy Russian land-based short-range nuclear missiles on the territory of Moscow’s close ally, where they will remain under Russian command.
Updated
A junior nurse and a plumber were killed in Russian shelling of a hospital in Huliai Pole in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office, said on the Telegram messaging app under a photo of a devastated building that two others were wounded in Huliai Pole, a small town close to the frontline in southern Ukraine.
These claims have not been independently verified.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Friday that Japan will offer emergency humanitarian aid worth about $5m (£3.9m) after the bursting of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Japanese government spokesperson has said.
Kishida also told Zelenskiy that Japan was ready to host a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction early next year, according to the official website of the Ukrainian president.
The Japanese chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, told a regular news conference after the phone talks:
Many Ukrainian citizens fell victim to the long-running Russian invasion, and civilian facilities including power plants were damaged.
This can never be justified, and we strongly condemn this anew.
Updated
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Friday that it had summoned the Japanese ambassador over Tokyo’s decision to supply military equipment to Ukraine.
Japan – which has backed Western sanctions against its longtime antagonist in east Asia in response to Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine – last month promised Ukraine about 100 military-use vehicles “such as trucks”, having previously given protective equipment such as helmets and bullet-proof vests.
However, Moscow said Tokyo was supplying “armoured vehicles” as well as all-terrain vehicles.
The ministry said in a statement:
The Japanese side was told that this step would lead to an escalation of hostilities and a further increase in the number of human casualties of the Kyiv regime.
Mounting evidence Nova Kakhovka dam blown up after seismic data points to blast at site
Julian Borger, our world affairs editor, says there is growing evidence that the Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up.
Evidence is growing that the Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up, after the publication of seismic data showing there was a blast at the site in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
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 Ukrainian government has said Russian occupying forces had control of the hydroelectric infrastructure on top of the dam and were using it as a garrison at the time of the blast. Explosive experts have said it would be much easier to blow up the dam from within than by firing on it from a distance.
Read more here.
Updated
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Friday that “everything indicates” Russia was behind the Kakhovka dam breach, which Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of causing.
The dam was destroyed on Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee their homes as water surged into the Dnipro River, flooding dozens of villages and parts of the city of Kherson and sparking fears of a humanitarian disaster.
Borrell told Spanish public television:
The dam was not bombed. It was destroyed by explosives installed in the areas where the turbines are located. This area is under Russian control.
I wasn’t there to find out who did it. But everything seems to indicate that if it took place in an area under Russian control, it is difficult to believe it could have been someone else.
In any case, the consequences for Ukraine are terrible, from the humanitarian point of view for the displaced people, and from the environmental point of view because the [dam’s] destruction will cause an ecological disaster.
Updated
Eight people are dead in Russian-held territory and more than 5,800 have been evacuated from their homes as a result of the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, a senior Russian-appointed official said on Friday.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Kherson province, which Russia claims to have unilaterally annexed, accused Ukraine of continuing to shell rescuers on the Russian-controlled left bank of the Dnipro River, Reuters reports.
In a post on Telegram, Saldo said the water level in the urban district of Nova Kakhovka, the town adjacent to the dam on the downstream side, had dropped by 2.5 metres (8.2ft) from Tuesday’s peak.
However, in Oleshky and Hola Prystan, opposite the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson at the mouth of the Dnipro, the water level remained “at the maximum”.
Saldo said the flooding may not abate for another 10 days, and that a total of 22,273 houses had been flooded in 17 towns and villages of the Russian-held part of Kherson.
Updated
Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 10.5% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period a year ago, the economy ministry said on Friday.
In a statement, the ministry said the fall was less than it had initially expected, indicating the economy was adapting to events even after Russia’s invasion more quickly than expected.
Ukraine’s economy shrank by about one-third last year after the full-scale Russian invasion.
Yulia Svyrydenko, who serves as first deputy prime minister and economy minister, said:
The data indicate that the Ukrainian economy is adapting and recovering at a faster pace than was previously forecast.
She said the government continued to focus on stabilising the situation in the energy sector and helping solve logistics problems for Ukrainian exports, Reuters reports.
The ministry said it had initially expected GDP to fall by 14.1% in the first quarter of 2023.
Updated
Ukraine’s domestic security agency said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in Kherson region. It posted a 90-second audio clip of the alleged conversation on its Telegram channel.
Reuters reported that the agency did not offer further details of the conversation or its participants. It said it had opened a criminal investigation into war crimes and ‘ecocide’.
You can listen to the recording, which has English subtitles, below:
The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has accused Russia of causing the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, calling it an act of “ecocide”.
The burst of the dam, under Russian control in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, unleashed large floods, forcing thousands of people to flee and wreaking environmental havoc. Russia and Ukraine have blamed one another for its destruction.
Thunberg said on Twitter on Thursday:
This ecocide as a continuation of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine is yet another atrocity which leaves the world lost for words. Our eyes are once again on Russia who must be held accountable for their crimes.
Thunberg on Friday told Reuters during a weekly climate protest by the Swedish parliament that the aftermath of the dam burst was “absolutely horrifying and awful”.
She said:
Russia needs to be held accountable for their action and for their crimes. The eyes of the world are on them now.
Updated
The Ukrainian interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on Friday four people had died and 13 were missing as a result of flooding in the southern region of Kherson following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app that a total of 2,412 people had been evacuated.
These claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine’s domestic security service (SBU) said earlier 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 Nova 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.
Vitalii Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, has posted to Telegram to say that for two hours there has been no rise in the level of the Inhulets River, and “accordingly, there is no water rise throughout the region”.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has told Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that Japan is ready to offer emergency humanitarian aid in the wake of the dam explosion and flooding, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said one person had been killed, three were wounded, and four buildings were destroyed from falling debris after Russia’s latest attack. Ukraine’s military shot down four cruise missiles and 10 attack drones during a Russian air strike overnight, the air force said in a statement. It said Russian forces had launched 16 drones and six cruise missiles during the attack, and that two other cruise missiles had struck a civilian object in central Ukraine.
Zelenskiy on Thursday hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. “There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam. “But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.
On Friday, deputy defence minister Hannah Maliar said Ukrainian troops were “conducting active combat operations in several areas of the Bakhmut direction” and that Russian troops were “conducting defensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction” where “positional battles continue”.
Russia’s army on Friday reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, saying more than 21 Ukrainian tanks had been destroyed in battles across key sections of the frontline. A spokesperson for Russia’s Vostok group of forces said 13 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed in battles in the Zaporizhzhia region and eight in the Donetsk region. It reported artillery, drone and infantry battles. The claims have not been independently verified.
Evgeny Balitsky, the Russian-imposed acting governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, has announced the formation of a people’s militia.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 33-year-old man was wounded when “Shahed” drones struck an infrastructure object in Bohodukhiv.
Voronezh regional governor Alexander Gusev has said three people were wounded in an attack on the southern Russian city of Voronezh when a drone hit a residential building.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has said it has fended off an aerial attack on the city of Belgorod, with air defence taking out two targets.
Sweden will allow Nato to base troops on its territory even before it formally joins the defence alliance, the prime minister and defence minister said on Friday. “The government has decided that the Swedish armed forces may undertake preparations with Nato and Nato countries to enable future joint operations,” the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and the defence minister, Pål Jonson, said.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Mabel Banfield-Nwachi will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
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Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has given a situational update on Ukraine’s military operations via her Telegram account, saying that Russia continues to be on the defensive in the Zaporizhzhia region.
She posted to say:
East is the epicentre: the enemy continues to focus its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka directions, heavy fighting continues.
In all directions, the enemy carries out airstrikes and carries out artillery and mortar attacks. However, the enemy does not succeed in achieving his goals. Our defenders repel attacks.
In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy is withdrawing reserves and trying to hold the occupied positions. Makes attempts to attack, but fails. Now our defenders are conducting active combat operations in several areas of the Bakhmut direction.
South: the enemy is conducting defensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction. Positional battles continue.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has praised the state emergency services working in the flooded areas of Kherson. In a message on Twitter, the Ukrainian president said:
We are working at all levels of state and local authorities to rescue as many people as possible from the flooded areas. The evacuation is ongoing. Wherever we can get people out of the flood zone, we do so. The State Emergency Service, police and military are doing a great job! I want to thank each and every person involved!
We are establishing more details about the damage Russia has caused by this disaster. In more than 40 settlements, life is broken. For hundreds of thousands of people in many towns and villages, access to drinking water has been greatly hampered.
Russia must be held accountable for this deliberate crime against people, nature and life itself.
We are working at all levels of state and local authorities to rescue as many people as possible from the flooded areas. The evacuation is ongoing. Wherever we can get people out of the flood zone, we do so. The State Emergency Service, police and military are doing a great job!… pic.twitter.com/lTEHoReSY6
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 9, 2023
Here are some images that have been sent to us from inside Russian-occupied Kherson over the news wires.
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Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has said it has fended off an aerial attack on the city of Belgorod. He posted on Telegram to say:
Our air defence system worked over Belgorod. Shot down two air targets on approach to the city. Operational services clarify the consequences on the ground. According to preliminary data, no victims.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has given a readout of his conversation with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida. Ukraine’s president tweeted:
I spoke about the consequences of Russia blowing up the Kakhovka HPP. This is a deliberate act of terrorism and another war crime of Russia, which, in particular, threatens the safety of the Zaporizhzhia NPP.
I also told about the situation on the frontline and Russia’s another intensification of missile terror against civilian infrastructure and peaceful cities.
We discussed further involvement of Japan’s security support, particularly in the area of humanitarian demining, and steps to implement the Ukrainian Peace Formula and prepare for the Global Peace Summit.
I am grateful for the readiness to hold a conference on the recovery of Ukraine early next year.
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Transcript of conversation Ukraine claims proves Russia blew up Nova Kakhovka dam
Ukraine’s domestic security service (SBU) said earlier 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.
In the conversation the first speaker starts by saying: “News. Yesterday there was a video in the Telegram channel – a soldier was standing there, his face covered, in his uniform. And he says there is no flooding, that people are living normally. And behind him there is a window and you can see knee-deep water.”
The second speaker says: “It’s funny. Is it about the fact that the hydroelectric power plant was destroyed?”
The conversation continued:
Speaker one: Yeah. The main problem is that the hydropower plant cools their nuclear reactor.
Speaker two: That’s fine. They did it to themselves. It’ll blow up and that’s it.
Speaker one: So our guys did it. It’s not them, it’s ours.
Speaker two: Really, it was ours? They said that the Khokhols [derogatory term for Ukrainians] blew it up.
Speaker one: They didn’t blow it up. 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.
Speaker two: Yeah, well, naturally. It’s gonna be like Chornobyl, right?
Speaker one: Built in the 1950s. It went down fast, it went down.
Reuters reports the SBU did not offer further details of the conversation or its participants. It said it had opened a criminal investigation into war crimes and “ecocide”.
“The invaders wanted to blackmail Ukraine by blowing up the dam and staged a man-made disaster in the south of our country,” it said in a statement.
Russia and the officials it has imposed in occupied Ukraine have blamed Kyiv for destroying the dam but have offered no evidence, and varying conflicting explanations.
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The Kremlin on Friday accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilian victims of flooding caused by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine in repeated shelling attacks, including one pregnant woman.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, called the purported attacks “barbaric”.
Russia did not provide any evidence to back up its claims.
Ukraine has repeatedly criticised Russia for shelling the Ukrainian-controlled portion of flooded Kherson while it was trying to undertake evacuations, with multiple videos posted online illustrating the claims, including from Ukraine’s chief rabbi.
I am here with Andre as Russian artillery shells scream overhead again and again.
— Chief Rabbi Of Ukraine Moshe Azman (@RabbiUkraine) June 8, 2023
Andrey has been saving people day and night and helps bring us to people who need help. He is a hero.
We pray for the safety of everyone in and near Kherson 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/BVgoFnaRpE
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Regional governor confirms three injured in drone attack on Russian city of Voronezh
Voronezh regional governor Alexander Gusev has increased the number of people wounded in a drone attack on the Russian city to three.
In a post to the Telegram messaging app, Gusev wrote:
The room in the house on Belinsky Street in Voronezh which was hit by a drone today, was empty. No one was inside at the time of the incident. As I have already said, medical assistance was provided to three lightly injured, hospitalisation was not required. There are no dead.
Gusev went on to say that a decision would be made about whether people from the building needed to be resettled due to the damage.
The state news agency Tass reports it was told by authorities that the drone was targeting an aircraft plant in the region, but was downed by electronic warfare.
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The Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin said on Friday that Crimea’s water supply would not be affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported.
Reuters cites the agency quoting him as saying that Crimea’s reservoirs were full and that the peninsula had enough water reserves for 500 days.
A canal from the 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.
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Former Ukrainian minister and government adviser Anton Gerashchenko has published on social media a CCTV clip which purports to show the moment a grocery store in Uman was hit.
Yesterday Russia attacked Uman, a Ukrainian city, with Kalibr missiles. A grocery store was hit.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 9, 2023
Russia announced it destroyed an ammunition warehouse with that attack.
Terrorist state. pic.twitter.com/SxwPvoYqM9
The Guardian has not independently verified the location or when the video was shot.
Earlier today my colleague Patrick Wintour offered this analysis of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s criticism of international aid agencies over their response to the flooding in Kherson:
Zelenskiy’s remarks reflect his anger that the UN – and much international reporting – is not yet rebutting Russian claims of innocence over the dam’s destruction, or focusing on the Russian failure to help those on the occupied left bank to which the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says they have been denied access by Moscow.
But his criticism is only his latest salvo in his savaging of the performance of the ICRC in Ukraine, as opposed to Red Cross Ukraine.
Zelenskiy and his circle believe the Geneva-based organisation has used the cover of neutrality, international law and confidentiality to mask a moral weakness.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian ombudsman for human rights, said last month that every day he is “faced with the fact that the Red Cross does not want to perform its functions. But worst of all, the Red Cross has a monopoly and does not allow other organisations to appear.”
He said: “One organisation uses its history, its name to get in the way of doing something impactful.”
Lubinets added Ukraine wanted a second organisation to be established with co-responsibility for accessing political prisoners, arguing that competition may spur the ICRC to be more proactive.
Read more of Patrick Wintour’s analysis here: Zelenskiy steps up criticism of International Red Cross over inaction at Kakhovka dam
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Two injured in apparent drone strike on Russian city of Voronezh – officials
Two people were wounded on Friday in an apparent drone strike in the southern Russian city of Voronezh, Reuters reports regional governor Alexander Gusev said.
Voronezh is about 180km (110 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and borders Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions, both of which have been frequently subject to cross-border shelling from Ukraine.
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Ukraine's security service claims to have intercepted call proving Russia blew up dam
Ukraine’s domestic security service said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region.
The security service of Ukraine posted a one-and-a-half minute audio clip of the alleged conversation on its Telegram channel.
More details soon …
Speaking of Nato, the secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has tweeted that he hopes to welcome Sweden as a full member of the alliance “as soon as possible”.
Great to meet PM @MarinSanna of our newest Ally #Finland to prepare #NATOSummit in Vilnius. We plan to step up for #Ukraine with a multi-year support package, and strengthen our defences. We also look forward to welcoming #Sweden as a full #NATO Ally as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/fxE7aKRUWF
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) June 9, 2023
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Sweden will allow Nato to base troops on its territory even before it formally joins the defence alliance, the prime minister and defence minister said on Friday.
“The government has decided that the Swedish armed forces may undertake preparations with Nato and Nato countries to enable future joint operations,” the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and the defence minister, Pål Jonson, said.
“The preparations may consist of temporary basing of foreign equipment and personnel on Swedish territory. The decision sends a clear signal to Russia and strengthens Sweden’s defence,” Reuters reports they said in an opinion piece in the daily Dagens Nyheter.
Sweden applied last year to join Nato as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Objections from Turkey and Hungary have delayed the bid and Sweden now hopes to join by a Nato summit in Lithuania next month. Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to join the summit in person.
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Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the news wires.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has told Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that Japan is ready to offer emergency humanitarian aid in the wake of the dam explosion and flooding, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said on Friday.
Reuters reports he added the aid would be worth about $5m (£4m/€4.6m) and distributed via international organisations.
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Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that an explosion has been heard in Kharkiv, stating it was “probably outside the city limits”.
Russia’s army on Friday reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, saying more than 21 Ukrainian tanks had been destroyed in battles across key sections of the frontline.
Reuters reports a spokesperson for Russia’s Vostok group of forces said 13 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed in battles in the Zaporizhzhia region and eight in the Donetsk region. It reported artillery, drone and infantry battles.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Evgeny Balitsky, the Russian-imposed acting governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, has announced the formation of a people’s militia.
In a post on Telegram, Balitsky said:
In the Zaporizhzhia region, a people’s militia has been created, which, together with the police and the military commandant’s office, will take over patrolling and law enforcement in the settlements of the Zaporizhzhia region.
Today, the first militias took the oath of allegiance to the Zaporizhzhia region and the inhabitants of our region. I am confident in the openness of the hearts of our countrymen, their steadfastness and desire to help.
Vitalii Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, has posted to Telegram to say that for two hours there has been no rise in the level of the Inhulets River, and “accordingly, there is no water rise throughout the region”.
The Inhulets flows into the Dnipro, and waters had been rising after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
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Russian military bloggers are saying that overnight the Ukrainians were making another attempt to break through Russian lines in occupied Zaporizhzhia in the area of Orikhiv.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 33-year-old man was wounded when “Shahed” drones struck an infrastructure object in Bohodukhiv.
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Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that during the night the flood water in Kherson fell by 20cm, citing the head of the regional authority, Oleksandr Prokudin.
It claimed that 2,352 people and 550 animals had been evacuated from flooded areas.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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Ukraine officials: one person killed, three wounded in overnight Russian strikes
Ukraine’s interior ministry said one person had been killed, three were wounded, and four buildings were destroyed from falling debris after Russia’s latest attack.
Reuters reports it posted images on the Telegram messaging app of firefighters attending to the smouldering wreckage of what appeared to be residential homes.
The air force also said two cruise missiles had struck a civilian object in the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy during an earlier attack on Thursday evening.
The regional governor, Ihor Taburets, said at least eight people had been wounded in that strike, which he said hit a carwash and an industrial object.
The Ukrainian military earlier reported shooting down four out of six missiles launched during the attack, which the air force said lasted around six hours, and 10 out of 16 drones.
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Bloomberg reports, citing administration officials, that the US will announce a new arms package for Ukraine valued at more than $2bn as soon as Friday.
The funds under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative will be heavy on air defence munitions and will help Ukraine purchase Hawk missile launchers and two types of advanced Patriot air defence missiles, the report said.
Ukraine says it downed four cruise missiles, 10 attack drones during Russian air strike
Ukraine’s military shot down four cruise missiles and 10 attack drones during a Russian air strike overnight, the air force said in a statement early on Friday.
It said Russian forces had launched 16 drones and six cruise missiles during the attack, and that two other cruise missiles had struck a civilian object in central Ukraine during an earlier attack on Thursday evening.
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Sunak pushes for UK defence minister to succeed outgoing Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg
White in Washington, Sunak also made the case to Biden for the UK defence minister, Ben Wallace, to succeed outgoing Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who is set to end his term leading the 31-member alliance in September.
Stoltenberg is slated to meet Biden in Washington on Monday, and leaders from the alliance are due to gather in Lithuania on 11-12 July for their annual summit.
Asked if it was time for a UK leader for Nato, Biden said “it may be” but “that remains to be seen”.
“We’re going to have to get a consensus within Nato,” he said.
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Biden and Sunak reaffirm commitment to Ukraine
US president Joe Biden and British prime minister Rishi Sunak reiterated their commitment to help Ukraine repel Russia’s ongoing invasion after talks at the White House, the Associated Press reports.
The US and UK are the two biggest donors to the Ukraine war effort and play a central role in a long-term effort announced last month to train, and eventually equip, Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.
Biden reiterated confidence that Congress would continue to provide Ukraine funding as needed despite some hesitation among Republican leaders at the growing cost of the war for American taxpayers.
“The US and the UK have stood together to support Ukraine,” Biden said at the start of their meeting.
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Zelenskiy hails ‘results’ amid heavy fighting in Donetsk
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Thursday hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
“There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam.
“But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.
Zelenskiy referred to other areas where fighting is going on, but said he would provide no details. Pictures posted on his Telegram account showed him meeting some of the country’s top generals in the field.
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Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top story this morning: heavy fighting in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
“There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam.
“But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.
And US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated their commitment to help Ukraine repel Russia’s ongoing invasion on Thursday, as Sunak visited the US.
Elsewhere:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Kherson region that has been affected 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”.
Zelenskiy later hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. “There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam. “But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.
A substantial Ukrainian force was pushing an assault against Russian positions in the south on Thursday, in an intensification of fighting that some Ukrainian officials and western analysts said marked the start in earnest of Kyiv’s much-vaunted counteroffensive. The combat against Russian positions south of Zaporizhzhia included western-supplied tanks and armoured vehicles and infantry backed by artillery. There were reports of intense fighting outside the town of Tokmak, a key Russian logistical hub.
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.
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 UN’s atomic watchdog later said that the plant has months worth of water reserves that can be pumped to the power plant to cool reactors and other areas.
The World Health Organization has rushed emergency supplies to flood-hit parts of Ukraine and is 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 tonnes 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.
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. Police reported that an additional three people were injured.
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.
Two missiles hit sites near the city of Uman in central Ukraine on Thursday, injuring eight people, the regional governor said. Ihor Taburets, governor of Cherkasy region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the missiles hit an industrial site and a car wash in the evening. He said two of the injured were seriously hurt, according to preliminary information.
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.
About 230 sq 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.
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