Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Kherson region, which was hit by floods after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. In a post to Telegram, the President of Ukraine said that the main topics discussed during the visit were “the operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential floodplains, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organization of life support for the flooded areas”.
Zelenskyy later praised what he called the “results” of heavy fighting in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. “There is very fierce fighting in the Donetsk region,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video message, which he delivered on a train after visiting areas affected by the Kakhovka Dam breach. “But there are results and I am grateful to those who have achieved those results. Well done in Bachmut. Step by step,” he said.
A sizeable Ukrainian force carried out an attack on Russian positions in the south on Thursday. Fighting escalated, which some Ukrainian officials and Western analysts say marked the start of Kiev’s much-vaunted counteroffensive. Combat against Russian positions south of Zaporizhia involved tanks and armored vehicles supplied from the west and infantry supported by artillery. There were reports of fierce fighting outside the city of Tokmak, a major logistics center in Russia.
Russia on Thursday dismissed Ukrainian allegations that it supported pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and discriminated against ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea. He accused Kiev of “blatant lies” before the UN Supreme Court.
One of Russia’s most senior and respected human rights activists, Oleg Orlov, was on trial ThursdayHis organization said he faces three years in prison if convicted of repeatedly discrediting the Russian armed forces.
The cooling basin of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is in danger of collapsing according to a French nuclear safety organization, as a result of the destruction of the Kachowka dam and the emptying of its reservoir. The United Nations nuclear regulatory agency later said the plant had months’ worth of water reserves that could be pumped to the plant to cool reactors and other areas.
The World Health Organization has urgently brought relief supplies to flood-affected parts of Ukraine and are preparing to respond to a range of health risks, including trauma, drowning and waterborne diseases such as cholera, officials said Thursday.
Ukraine could lose several million tons of crops due to flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in the south of the country. This was announced by the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday.
Russian shelling killed a civilian Thursday in the Ukrainian city of Kherson as people were evacuated due to flooding caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam, claimed the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. According to the police, three other people were injured.
The investigative team of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has released a new video claiming to have found a son of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose name was previously unknown to the public. For the past year, Shoigu’s alleged son has been writing cheesy pop songs in English while his father is sending tens of thousands of Russians to the war in Ukraine, the Guardian’s Shaun Walker has reported.
Two rockets hit locations near the city of Uman in central Ukraine on Thursday. Eight people were injured, the regional governor said. Ihor Taburets, governor of the Cherkassy region, wrote in the news app Telegram that the rockets hit an industrial site and a car wash in the evening. He said two of the injured were seriously injured, according to preliminary information.
The Russian embassy said responsibility for the “looming tragedy” in Kherson over the destruction of the Kakhovka dam rested with Kiev and Western countries that have been supplying arms to Ukraine in what they say in a statement is a “terrorist attack.”
Britain announced a new package of sanctions against Belarus on Thursday for his role in facilitating the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including import bans and new measures to prevent internet propaganda.
About 230 square miles (600 square kilometers) of the Kherson region was flooded Thursday, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Prokudin said 68% of the flooded area was on the Russian-held left bank of the Dnipro River. The average flood level in the Kherson region was 5.61 m (18.41 ft) as of Thursday morning, he said. He said nearly 2,000 people had evacuated the flooded area by Thursday morning.