Live blog: Ukrainian counteroffensive failed to reach goals, says Putin

Friday, June 9, 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that a long-expected counteroffensive from Ukraine had begun but Kiev had so far "failed" to reach its goals.

"We can definitely state that this Ukrainian offensive has begun," Putin said in a video interview published on Telegram by a Russian journalist.

"But the Ukrainian troops did not reach their aims in any area of combat," he added.

Ukraine has for months said it was preparing a counteroffensive to repel Russian troops from its territories, but said there would be no formal announcement.

Putin said that "combat has continued for five days, with intense fighting yesterday and the day before," adding Ukrainian forces had suffered "significant losses" but "the offensive potential of the Kiev regime still remains."

For several days, the Russian army has said it repelled assaults in the south of Ukraine, which would be the opening phase of Kiev's offensive.

Kiev, however, said the main centre of combat was still in Ukraine's east, while providing few details on the situation in the south.

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1759 GMT — Zelenskyy hails 'heroism' of soldiers fighting 'tough battles'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hailed the heroism of his armed forces amid reports of intensified fighting in the south, seen as the possible start of Kiev's long-expected offensive.

"For our soldiers, for all those who are in particularly tough battles these days. We see your heroism, and we are grateful to you for every minute of your life," Zelenskyy said in his daily address.

Ukrainian officials have said their forces are ready for a counteroffensive to claw back territory in the east and south, but that there would be no formal announcement when it begins.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the counteroffensive had started but that efforts "so far have failed," after Moscow said it repelled several Ukrainian assaults. As pledged, Ukraine has said little about the clashes.

1733 GMT — UN focused on improving Russian exports ahead of grain deal deadline

The United Nations has helped boost Russian exports of food and fertilizers, facilitating a steady flow of ships to its ports and lower freight and insurance rates, a UN spokesperson said after UN and Russian officials discussed the efforts.

Top UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan met with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin in Geneva as Moscow threatens to walk away from a deal allowing the safe export of food and fertilizer from Ukraine's Black Sea ports on July 17 if obstacles to its own such shipments are not removed.

To convince Moscow to agree to the pact known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative - brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye in July last year - a three-year agreement was struck at the same time under which UN officials agreed to help Russia with its own food and fertilizer exports.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after the February 2022 attack on Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.

1516 GMT — US: Iran helping Russia construct new drone facility for Ukraine conflict

Iran has been providing Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow as the Kremlin looks to lock in a steady supply of weaponry for its ongoing offensive in Ukraine, according to a US intelligence finding released by the White House.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said US intelligence officials believe a plant in Russia’s Alabuga special economic zone could be operational early next year. The White House also released satellite imagery taken in April of the industrial location, several hundred miles east of Moscow, where it believes the plant “will probably be built.”

President Joe Biden's administration publicly stated in December that it believed Tehran and Moscow were considering standing up a drone assembly line in Russia for the Ukraine war. The new intelligence suggests that the project, in the Yelabuga region of Tatarstan, has moved beyond conception.

Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the start of the war but not since.

1328 GMT — 'Worst is yet to come’ in Ukraine, says EU's top diplomat

European Union foreign policy Josep Borrell has warned that “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine, suggesting that the war will intensify this summer.

Although the fighting has intensified in some areas, Borrell told Spanish broadcaster TVE that “Ukraine still hasn’t launched the counteroffensive that everyone is waiting for.”

Borrell’s comments came just days after the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine was destroyed. While Moscow has blamed Kiev, Borrell said “everything indicates” that Russia is behind the destruction.

“The dam was destroyed with explosives installed within the turbine chamber. And it occurred in an area under Russian control … it would be difficult for it to be anyone else,” Borrell continued.

1300 GMT — Blast detected at time of Ukraine dam breach: Seismological institute

Norway's seismological institute has said it had detected "an explosion" at the site and time a dam was breached in Ukraine that caused major flooding.

NORSAR's announcement, which did not provide any information about the cause of the blast, supports suggestions that the hydroelectric dam, located in a Russian-controlled zone, did not burst as a result of damage incurred during months of heavy bombing.

The blast's “magnitude estimate is between 1 and 2,” it added.

Early this week, an emergency was declared on both sides of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine's Kherson region after it burst – one side is controlled by Russia and the other by Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the blast, which destroyed part of the dam that supplied water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

1256 GMT — Russia to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in July, says Putin

Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after special storage facilities are ready on July 7-8, President Vladimir Putin has said, Moscow's first move of such bombs outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

More than 15 months into the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two, Putin says the United States and its Western allies are pumping arms into Ukraine as part of an expanding proxy war aimed at bringing Russia to its knees.

Putin in March announced he wanted to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, an apparent warning to the US-led NATO military alliance over its support for Ukraine.

Leading NATO countries say they will support Ukraine and help it defend itself for as long as it takes from what Kiev casts as an imperial-style land grab by Russia which threatens the survival of the Ukrainian state.

1244 GMT — 3 people injured in Ukraine’s drone attack on Russia’s city of Voronezh

At least three people have been injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a residential building in Russia’s city of Voronezh, according to the governor.

“According to preliminary data, an unmanned aerial vehicle attacked a residential building on Belinsky Street in Voronezh. … Three people got hit with shrapnel, while they refused to be hospitalised,” Voronezh Governor Aleksandr Gusev said on Telegram.

The Russian media reported that the building was damaged on the second and third floors, which led to the partial destruction of several apartments.

Special and rescue services are working at the place of the incident, Gusev also said.

1227 GMT — Top UN court allows Ukraine allies to join case against Russian offensive

The International Court of Justice has allowed Ukraine's Western allies to back a case filed by Kiev last year at the UN's top tribunal urging Moscow to stop its offensive.

"The court concludes that the declarations of intervention filed in this case... are admissible," the court said, allowing 32 countries including France, Britain and Germany to support the case, but not the United States.

1219 GMT — Ukraine reports heavy fighting in east, gains near Bakhmut

Ukraine has reported heavy fighting in the eastern region of Donetsk and a military spokesperson said Ukrainian forces had gained more ground near the devastated city of Bakhmut.

"The situation is tense on all areas of the front," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app.

Naming eastern areas where fighting has been fierce for months, she said: "The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivsky and Mariinka directions, heavy fighting continues."

She said Ukrainian troops were repelling the Russian attacks.

1200 GMT — Russia says 'repelled' several Ukrainian attacks on southern front

The Russian army has said it had repelled several attacks on the southern Ukrainian front, where fighting sharply intensified this week amid expectations of a major Kiev offensive.

"Over the past day, the armed forces of Ukraine continued attempts to conduct offensive operations in the South-Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions," the Russian army said. It said these were "decisively" pushed back by Russian troops and aviation.

1125 GMT — Ukraine: Five killed, 13 missing in flooding since dam destroyed

Ukraine has been evacuating more people on Friday from southern areas where officials said at least five people had been killed in flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app that four people had died and 13 people were missing in the Kherson region, and one person had died in the Mykolayiv region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the authorities were working round the clock to save people.

"The evacuation continues. Wherever we can get people out of the flood zone, we are doing it," he said.

1121 GMT — Eight dead from Ukraine dam flooding: Russia

Russian-installed authorities in southern Ukraine have reported more casualties from the flood triggered by the destruction of a key dam, and said the water could keep rising for more than a week.

"Unfortunately, there are casualties... Their number has grown to eight people," the Moscow-installed head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram.

The water, which flooded 22,273 homes in 17 settlements, could "keep rising for up to ten days," he added, also accusing Ukrainian forces of shelling the region, which "complicates the work of rescuers."

More than 5,800 people were evacuated since the flood was unleashed on Tuesday, Saldo said, including 243 children.

0845 GMT — Kremlin accuses Ukraine of killing dam flood victims in shelling

The Kremlin has 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 spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the purported attacks "barbaric."

Peskov's assertions could not be independently verified by journalists and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has accused Russian forces of shelling civilians located on flooded territory which it controls.

0837 GMT — Russia reports heavy fighting in Zaporizhzhia

Fighting raged in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian official said, with observers seeing the combat as the possible start of Kiev's long-expected offensive.

Ukraine has not offered any confirmation but expectations have built for months over when its forces, bolstered with Western weapons and training, would launch a counter-offensive in a bid to reclaim land from Russian forces.

The fighting comes as the humanitarian and environmental costs climbed after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam unleashed destructive flooding in a different part of Ukraine's south.

"At the moment, active combat is ongoing in the region between Orekhovo and Tokmak," Vladimir Rogov, an official with Russian occupation authorities, wrote on the Telegram messaging service, referring to a locality known in Ukrainian as Orikhiv.

Alexander Sladkov, a correspondent for Russian media, wrote on Telegram of "intense fighting" in the area.

0824 GMT — Drone hits residential building in Russian city of Voronezh: governor

A drone hit a residential building in Russia's southern city of Voronezh injuring two people, the regional governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Drone attacks have hit Russian cities - including Moscow - often in recent months as Kiev says it is preparing for a major counteroffensive.

It is the first such incident in Voronezh, a city of around one million people, which lies in the next region deeper into Russia than Belgorod - which has been heavily shelled by Ukraine.

0816 GMT — Ukraine says it intercepted call proving Russia blew up Kakhovka dam

Ukraine's domestic security service said it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian "sabotage group" blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine.

The destruction of the facility on Tuesday unleashed mass flooding, forcing thousands of residents to flee and wreaking environmental havoc.

Russia and its proxy officials in Ukraine have blamed Kiev for destroying the dam but have offered varying explanations.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) posted a one-and-a-half minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation, which featured two men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian.

0717 GMT — Japan PM Kishida offers Zelenskiy emergency humanitarian aid

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Japan is ready to offer emergency humanitarian aid in the wake of the dam explosion and flooding, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.

The aid will be worth about $5 million and distributed via international organisations, he added.

0630 GMT — One dead as Russia launches heavy air strikes on Ukraine

Russia unleashed a new air strikes on Ukraine overnight, killing at least one person in a combined assault of cruise missiles and attack drones, Ukrainian authorities said.

The Ukrainian military reported shooting down at least four out of six missiles launched during the attack, which the air force said lasted around six hours, and 10 out of 16 drones.

The interior ministry said one person had been killed, three were wounded, and four buildings were destroyed by falling debris.

It posted images on the Telegram messaging app of firefighters attending to the smouldering wreckage of what appeared to be residential homes. An earlier strike on Thursday night also injured at least eight people in central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy.

0418 GMT — Ukraine urges Russia to allow UN, Red Cross to access Kherson for flood evacuation

Ukraine urged Russia on June 8 to grant ''unimpeded access'' to the UN and the Red Cross to evacuate civilians after the collapse of a major dam in the Russian-controlled territories of the country.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya, joined by the US, the UK, Japan and European countries, expressed ''profound concern'' over the reported shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine during the evacuation from the areas flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

At least nine people including police and medical and rescue personnel were wounded Thursday in the city as a result of shelling during the ongoing evacuation operation, he said, citing local authorities.

He strongly condemned the shelling of evacuation areas and called on Russia to cease such attacks and allow the evacuation teams to safely help the affected civilian population.

0400 GMT — Ukraine says water level at Kakhovka Reservoir at ‘dead’ point

The head of Ukraine’s hydropower generating company said that the water level at the Kakhovka Reservoir following the Kakhovka dam blast has dropped below the “dead” point of 12.7 meters.

“The level is already 12.5 meters. This is lower than the ‘dead’ point of 12.7 metres, when we can no longer withdraw water for settlements and for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” Ukrhydroenergo CEO Ihor Syrota said on the country’s United News service.

Syrota said the reservoir’s water level may continue to drop for another seven to eight days if the current rate of the drop is one meter per day, further indicating that half of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant is already completely underwater.

2154 GMT — Zelenskyy hails 'results' in eastern Ukraine fighting

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hailed what he described as the "results" in heavy fighting in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

"There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region," Zelenskyy 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.

Zelenskyy 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.

2100 GMT — Damaged reservoir can still provide water for big Ukrainian nuclear plant

Water from the reservoir of a breached Ukrainian dam is still being pumped to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to cool reactors and other areas, though levels are at values earlier thought to make it impossible, the UN atomic watchdog has said.

The plant, occupied by Russia since the early days of its offensive last year, can fall back on other water sources when the reservoir's water is no longer available.

These include a large cooling pond above the reservoir with several months' worth of water, the Internation al Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] said.

"In these difficult and challenging circumstances, this is providing some more time before possibly switching to alternative water supplies including the large cooling pond next to the plant," IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

He repeated earlier warnings that the security situation surrounding the Zaporizhzhia facility "remains very precarious and potentially dangerous".

For our live updates from Thursday (June 8), click here.