Evacuation operations for thousands of residents of flooded towns along the Dnieper are getting tougher with the gradual rise in water levels. Moscow and kyiv continue to accuse each other, the day after the partial destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Tuesday, June 6, that the partial destruction of the dam in the south of the country has not changed the plans of the counter-offensive prepared for months by Kiev.
Evacuations continue after partial destruction of a dam
Mass evacuations continue Wednesday in southern Ukraine after the partial destruction of the Kakhovka dam. “The most difficult situation is taking place in the Korabelny district of the city of Kherson. So far the water level has risen by 3.5 meters, more than 1,000 houses are flooded,” in this city taken over from the Russians by the Ukrainians in November 2022, declared in a press release the deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, Oleksiï Kouléba. Evacuations will continue on Wednesday and in the coming days by bus and train, he said.
“More than 40,000 people are at risk of being in flooded areas. The Ukrainian authorities are evacuating more than 17,000 people. Unfortunately, more than 25,000 civilians are in the territory under Russian control,” Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriï Kostin announced on Tuesday. . “At this stage, 24 localities in Ukraine have been flooded,” said Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko. The authorities installed by the Russians in the regions they occupy said they had begun the evacuation of the population of three localities, mobilizing around fifty buses. Vladimir Leontiev, the Moscow-appointed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, where the dam is located, said his town was under water and 900 of its residents had been evacuated.
Ukrainian dam: “new consequence” of the Russian invasion, says the head of the UN
The partial destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine is “a new devastating consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday. “The United Nations does not have access to independent information about the circumstances that led to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam hydroelectric power station. But one thing is clear: this is another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he told reporters.
“Today’s tragedy is a new example of the terrible price of war for the population. The floodgates of suffering have been overflowing for more than a year. This must stop”, insisted Antonio Guterres. “Attacks against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure must stop,” he said.
For his part, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council that “the scale of the disaster will only be fully realized in the coming days”. “But it is already clear that this will have serious and far-reaching consequences for thousands of people in southern Ukraine on both sides of the frontline due to the loss of homes, food, drinking water and livelihoods,” he added.
Roland-Garros: Sabalenka, victory and stance against the war
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, world No.2, took a strong stand against the war in Ukraine and the president of her country, an ally of Russia, after qualifying for the Roland-Garros semi-finals on Tuesday. After evading the normally compulsory exercise of the press conference after her two previous matches, with the agreement of the Paris tournament, Aryna Sabalenka showed up this time after her 6-4, 6-4 victory over to the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, a new match with a political dimension.
The 25-year-old Belarusian, who could become world No.1 at the end of the Paris fortnight, did not avoid political questions, and answered them. Without mincing words. “I don’t support war, which means I don’t support Lukashenko right now,” Aryna Sabalenka said for the first time.
Ukraine at the heart of the international ceremony of the 79th anniversary of the landing of June 6, 1944
Ukraine at the heart of the international ceremony of the 79th anniversary of the Landing of June 6, 1944 The Ukrainian conflict was Tuesday at the heart of the international ceremony of the 79th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy of 1944, organized in Ver-sur-mer (Calvados ).
Were present the French Defense Ministers Sébastien Lecornu, British Ben Wallace and eight ambassadors of nations that participated in the landing, as well as Germany. More than 2,500 people attended a poignant tribute to the 3,000 soldiers who fell on D-Day, at the British memorial in Ver-sur-mer with its white stones against the blue backdrop of the English Channel. “Men and women in Ukraine today are preparing for death or victory, as our soldiers did 79 years ago,” UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said before his French counterpart does not celebrate “this day of return to freedom”.
Russia officially protests alleged use of Belgian weapons in incursions on its soil
Russia summoned Belgium’s ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday to protest the alleged use of Belgian weapons by Russians fighting alongside Ukraine in several recent deadly incursions into Russian territory. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ambassador was served “a strong protest following the revelations concerning the use of weapons manufactured in Belgium by subversive groups which carried out terrorist attacks in the Belgorod region “.
“Russia had repeatedly warned of the danger of the Ukrainian armed forces being supplied with Western weapons and equipment and of these spreading out of control,” he added. Moscow called on Belgium “not to turn a blind eye to the growing evidence of the support given” by Kiev to these armed groups which “attack civilians and civilian infrastructure in Russia”. These incursions, claimed by armed groups claiming to be Russian and fighting alongside the Ukrainian army, gave rise to violent clashes in the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine.