The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in southern Ukraine was partially destroyed by an explosion on Tuesday (June 6th) as Ukraine carries out attacks on Russian forces.
Earlier, kyiv had admitted to gaining ground near the devastated city of Bakhmout, in the east, while relativizing the scale of the “offensive actions” carried out elsewhere on the front. For its part, Russia ensures on the contrary to repel large-scale attacks. These operations take place at a time when the Ukrainian authorities say they have been preparing for months a vast counter-offensive intended to force Russian troops to withdraw from the areas they occupy.
Zelensky convenes his Security Council after an explosion on a dam
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will urgently convene his Security Council on Tuesday after an explosion at the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in the south of the country, the head of the presidential administration announced. “Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station. Another war crime committed by Russian terrorists. The President has summoned the National Security Council,” Andrii Yermak wrote on Telegram.
Zelensky thanks his troops for territorial gains
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his troops for the territorial gains they claimed, ironically over Moscow’s “hysterical” reaction. “We see how hysterically Russia reacts to all the advances we make in this sector, to all the positions we take. The enemy knows that Ukraine will win,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in a message. video.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak previously quipped on Twitter that Russia is “busy repelling a global offensive that does not yet exist”. “Why are the Russians actively publishing information about a counter-offensive? Because they need to divert attention (about) the defeat in the direction of Bakhmout,” the deputy minister said. Ukrainian Defense, Ganna Maliar, on Telegram.
Russia claims to have killed 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers, Prigojine quips
The Russian Ministry of Defense meanwhile claimed to have countered since the morning of June 4 attacks on five sectors of the front “in the southern direction of the Donetsk region”, located in the east. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had killed “more than 1,500 Ukrainian servicemen” and destroyed “28 tanks”. A statement derided by the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evgueni Prigojine, accustomed to virulent criticism of the general staff.
“These are just rantings,” Evgueni Prigojine commented in a message on Telegram. Killing 1,500 soldiers in one day is “one hell of a massacre”, he quipped, mocking Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. “In fact, why not add up all the numbers given by Konashenkov. I think we have already destroyed the whole planet Earth five times,” he quipped.
Bakhmout at the heart of the fighting, kyiv affected
According to Kiev, the Bakhmout sector, which is the scene of the longest and deadliest battle of the conflict and which Moscow claimed to have taken in May, remains “the epicenter of hostilities”. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said that Ukrainian forces are advancing on the outskirts of this city “on a fairly broad front”: “We are achieving success and occupying the dominant heights”. According to her, the Ukrainian troops have advanced several hundred meters on this sector of the front. This Ukrainian progress was confirmed by Evgueni Prigojine, according to whom “part of the locality of Berkhivka is already lost”, a “shame”. Experts and Russian soldiers expect that kyiv multiplies the attacks on the enemy lines to detect weaknesses there, before launching the bulk of the troops. In September 2022, the Ukrainian army secretly prepared an assault that resulted in the reconquest of almost all of the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, a new air attack also targeted kyiv, “possibly using cruise missiles”, reported the civil and military administration of the Ukrainian capital. “According to initial information, more than 20 enemy air targets have been detected and destroyed” by the Ukrainian air defense. No casualties were reported but a debris fall in Desnyansky district damaged pavement, trolleybus power lines and shop windows, the local administration said.
Russian prisoners in Belgorod
In Russia, for two weeks, incursions and bombings have multiplied in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, claimed by fighters presenting themselves as Russians who are fighting alongside Ukrainians. The strikes killed several civilians and injured dozens of civilians. In the latest operation, on Sunday, one such group dubbed the “Freedom Legion of Russia” took prisoners who are to be handed over to kyiv. A dozen detainees, including two injured, are visible in a video. This is the first time that Russians have been captured on Russian territory.
Fighting has been concentrated in recent days around Novaya Tavoljanka and Chebekino, near the border, forcing thousands of civilians to flee to Belgorod, the regional capital. “What exactly is happening in the Belgorod region at the moment? It’s simple, it’s a boomerang effect”, wrote on Twitter Mykhaïlo Podoliak, repeating that Ukraine was “not involved in these attacks.
kyiv and Moscow find themselves before international justice
Ukraine and Russia meet on Tuesday June 6 before the highest court of the UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Kiev accuses Moscow of supporting separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine for years before the full-scale Russian invasion began last year, supplying them with weapons and money. Ukraine alleges Russia violated UN conventions on terrorist financing and racial discrimination, and seeks compensation for attacks by separatist rebels. The conflict with pro-Russian separatists has claimed nearly 13,000 lives since its outbreak in early 2014, a month after the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych followed by Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
kyiv and Moscow will present their arguments in the coming days, before being able to respond to them on June 12 and 14 respectively. Since this case was brought by Ukraine in 2017, kyiv has filed another petition, following the February 2022 Russian invasion, accusing Moscow of planning genocide. The ICJ in this case ordered Russia to suspend its invasion.
Ukraine, “a very similar situation” to 1944, according to the American general staff
Welcoming what the Allies of 1944 “did together to restore freedom to the peoples of Europe”, the Chief of Staff of the American Army estimated Monday, June 5 to find “a very similar situation with the attack on Ukraine for no reason. It reminds us that freedom is not free”. General James McConville was in the city of Bayeux alongside his French and British counterparts, on the eve of the commemorations of the Allied landings of June 6, 1944 on the Normandy coast held by Nazi Germany.
The war in Ukraine is a “return of history and dangerous confrontations between great powers”, said British General Sir Patrick Sanders during their press conference, adding that the British army had “trained 10,000 (Ukrainian soldiers ) in 2022 from June, and that it hoped to train 25 to 30,000 this year”.