As every day, this Sunday, June 18, 2023, Midi Libre follows the news about the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine retakes a village near Zaporijia, the death toll mounts after the destruction of the dam, the Ukrainians claim to have destroyed a Russian arms depot… diplomatic tensions and armed conflicts continue after more than a year of war.
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Kakhovka Dam
The death toll from the floods linked to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine has risen to 16, according to Kiev officials, while Russia reports 29 deaths in Moscow-controlled areas.
The rupture of the Kakhovka dam on June 6 caused floods in southern Ukraine and Russian-occupied territories, destroyed agricultural land and cut off water supplies to civilians.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reported Saturday on the Telegram network that in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions more than 3,600 residents were evacuated, 31 people were missing and about 1,300 houses were flooded. Andrei Alekseyenko, head of the Russian-installed administration in the Moscow-occupied parts of the Kherson region, spoke of a death toll of 29 via Telegram.
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War in Ukraine: After the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, the number of victims increases
Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the Soviet-era dam that fell under Russian control in the early days of the country’s 2022 invasion.
In preliminary findings released on Friday, a team of international legal experts assisting Ukrainian prosecutors in their investigations said it was “very likely” that the collapse of Ukraine’s Kherson region was caused by explosives planted by Russians.
The Kremlin accuses Kiev of sabotaging the dam, which housed a huge reservoir, to deprive Crimea of a vital water source and distract it from its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Takeover of a Ukrainian village
A representative of the Russian-installed authorities admitted on Sunday that Ukraine had recaptured a village in the southern Zaporizhia region, its second win on that front since its counter-offensive began earlier this month.
“The enemy’s offensives (…) have borne fruit, despite huge losses,” said official Vladimir Rogov via the news application Telegram. Fierce fighting continues in the area, he added.
Ukraine did not immediately comment and Portal could not independently confirm the situation on the ground. Russia claims it is inflicting heavy casualties on Kiev’s armed forces, and President Vladimir Putin said last week that Ukraine’s counter-offensive had “no chance” of succeeding.
Kiev last week claimed to have retaken around 100 km2 of territory in just over a week, including several villages in Donetsk’s eastern region. Ukraine announced on June 12 that it had recaptured Lobkove, a village neighboring Piatykhatky in the Zaporizhia region.
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VIDEO. War in Ukraine: Explosions, huge plume of smoke… Kiev says it destroyed a Russian ammunition depot near Kherson
Russian arms depot destroyed
Ukrainian forces destroyed a “significant” ammunition depot near the Russian-held port city of Henichesk in the Kherson region, Serhiy Brachuk, a spokesman for the Odessa military administration, reported on Sunday.
“In the morning, our armed forces dealt a heavy blow – and very hard – in the village of Rykove in the Henichesk district of the temporarily occupied area of the Kherson region,” he said in a video message. “There was a very important ammunition depot. It was destroyed.”
Portal could not independently verify the information. Russia initially did not comment on the alleged attack. Ukrainian media released videos showing a large plume of smoke rising in the distance and the sounds of explosions.
Rykove is about 20 km from Henichesk, a port city on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine that has been occupied by Kremlin forces since the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.