Ukraine: Destroyed Soviet-era dam near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
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Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will begin deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus next month, Moscow’s first move of such bombs outside of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Russian president said the weapons will be deployed after special storage facilities are ready in just under a month.
It comes after he announced last month that he wanted to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, in an apparent warning to NATO about its support for Ukraine.
“Everything is going according to plan,” Putin told his ally and Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
“The preparation of the relevant facilities ends on July 7 and 8, and we will immediately begin activities related to the deployment of the appropriate types of weapons on your territory,” he said, according to a Kremlin transcript of his remarks.
Earlier, Ukraine’s internal security service said it had intercepted a phone call showing that a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and dam in southern Ukraine. The destruction of the facilities on Tuesday led to massive flooding, which forced thousands of residents to flee and caused environmental damage.
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Russian attack damages infrastructure at Ukrainian military airfield – governor
Russia fired missiles and attacked drones in Ukraine’s central Poltava region overnight, causing “some damage to infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield, the regional governor said on Saturday.
The attack, which used ballistic and cruise missiles, also damaged eight private residential houses and several vehicles, Governor Dmytro Lunin said on Telegram messenger. No casualties have been reported.
Matt MathersJune 10, 2023 08:25
Three killed in Russian drone attack in Odesa overnight – Ukraine
Three civilians were killed during a Russian drone strike in the Black Sea city of Odesa on Saturday after drone debris fell on an apartment block, sparking a fire, Ukraine’s military said.
Air defenses in the Odesa region shot down eight “Shahed” drones and two missiles in the latest in a series of night airstrikes on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, a spokesman for the southern military command said .
“As a result of the air fight, the remains of one of the drones fell on a high-rise apartment, causing a fire,” military official Natalia Humeniuk said in a statement.
Emergency services said 27 people, including three children, were injured, but the fire was quickly extinguished and 12 people were rescued from the building.
Matt MathersJune 10, 2023 07:29
Three people die during a Russian drone attack in Odesa province
Three people were killed and at least ten others were injured during a Russian drone strike in Odesa Oblast today, according to local reports.
According to the Southern Command of Ukraine, Russian forces attacked the region with Iranian-made drones. Officials, however, claimed that all the drones were destroyed by Ukrainian forces.
A high-rise residential building was damaged by falling debris. The resulting fire has since been extinguished, authorities said.
The blast wave also damaged neighboring residential buildings.
Maroosha MuzaffarJune 10, 2023 07:00
Five dead, 13 missing in floods after Kakhovka dam collapse, Ukrainian authorities say
At least five people in Kherson and Mykolaiv provinces were killed yesterday and 13 others were missing, according to Ukrainian officials.
The Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine reported that dozens of settlements on both banks of the Dnipro River are flooded.
The ministry said four of the five victims died in southern Kherson Oblast, where 48 settlements have been flooded, including 34 on the Ukrainian-controlled west bank of the Dnipro River and 14 on the occupied east bank by Russia, reports Kyiv Independent.
The police chief of Mykolaiv Oblast reported on June 8 that another victim died in neighboring Mykolaiv Oblast, where 23 settlements have been flooded.
Maroosha MuzaffarJune 10, 2023 06:30
More than 130 explosions recorded in Sumy Oblast, according to Ukrainian authorities
Russian forces attacked seven communities in Sumy Oblast yesterday, the region’s military administration said on Telegram.
According to officials, Russian forces targeted the communities of Velyka Pysarivka, Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Myropillia, Shalyhyne, Yunakivka and Novoslobidske, according to the Kyiv Independent.
A total of 133 explosions were reported in the seven communities.
One local was injured in Yunakivka community. The attacks also damaged a residential building, an outbuilding and a garage in the same community.
Maroosha MuzaffarJune 10, 2023 06:00
Russian ambassador to US says Washington not seeking ‘diplomatic solution to conflict’
The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, stated yesterday that the US does not intend to seek ways of a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine, TASS news agency reported.
Speaking about the upcoming package of US military assistance to the Kiev authorities, he said: “The United States continues to increase its neighborhoods with new batches of deadly weapons. The allocations for these purposes of such impressive financial resources indicate a thing: Washington has no intention of looking for ways of a diplomatic solution to the conflict.”
He added that Washington “did nothing to bring the regime [Volodymyr] Zelensky at the negotiating table”.
He continued: “On the contrary, they are methodically pushing their puppets to continue sacrificing human lives in the name of the extravagant goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia. It is impossible for Washington to withdraw from this task. At stake is the reputation of the country’s leadership, which has chosen the path of war, and not diplomatic solutions.”
Maroosha MuzaffarJune 10, 2023 05:30
Ukraine faces ‘much worse’ humanitarian situation after dam burst, says UN aid chief
The humanitarian situation in Ukraine is “much worse” than before the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, the UN’s top aid official warned yesterday.
Assistant Secretary-General Martin Griffiths said an “extraordinary” 700,000 people needed clean water and warned that the ravages of flooding in one of the world’s biggest breadbaskets would almost inevitably lead to a decline in grain exports, a rise in prices of food around the world and less to feed millions of people in need.
“This is a viral issue,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press. “But the truth is that this is only the beginning of seeing the consequences of this act.”
Maroosha MuzaffarJune 10, 2023 05:00
US ambassador to UN ‘gravely concerned’ about growing military cooperation between Russia and Iran
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, says she is “gravely concerned about the growing military cooperation between Russia and Iran” and called for an investigation into the transfer of attack drones from They will go to Russia.
“I am deeply concerned about the growing military cooperation between Russia and Iran, which continues to allow Russia to wage its brutal war against Ukraine,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
He says Russia and Iran are violating the UN Security Council resolution.
He cited information released by the US earlier on Friday documenting how Iran “has provided Russia with hundreds of one-way attack UAVs”. [unmanned aerial vehicles]as well as equipment related to the production of UAVs.” The ambassador said that Russia has been using these UAVs in recent weeks to launch missile attacks on Kiev and “terrorize Ukrainian civilians.”
The White House claimed yesterday that Russia has received hundreds of drones from Iran to attack Ukraine.
Citing recently declassified information, the White House said that drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs]they were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine.
Maroosha MuzaffarJune 10, 2023 04:30
Russia has received hundreds of Iranian drones to attack Ukraine, the White House says
The White House claimed yesterday that Russia has received hundreds of drones from Iran to attack Ukraine.
Citing recently declassified information, the White House said drones or unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs]they were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine.
“Russia has been using Iranian UAVs in recent weeks to attack Kiev and terrorize the Ukrainian population, and the military partnership between Russia and Iran appears to be deepening,” White House spokesman John Kirby said. in a statement.
“We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to produce Iranian UAVs from inside Russia.”
Kirby also said the US had information that Russia was receiving materials from Iran needed to build a drone manufacturing plant that could be fully operational by early next year.
“We are releasing satellite images of the intended location of this UAV manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone.”
Maroosha Muzaffar10 June 2023 03:54
Russia claims it blew up an advanced Ukrainian tank, but video shows its helicopter attacking a tractor
A grainy black-and-white video Russia released this week to bolster a claim that its military blew up some of Ukraine’s most feared tanks documented the destruction of a tractor, according to a visual analysis by The Associated Press.
The Russian Embassy in Washington announced on Twitter on Monday that its forces had “destroyed” eight German-made Leopard tanks, among the most advanced and powerful weapons NATO countries have provided to Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry then posted a video on the Telegram social media network on Tuesday with text it said showed “image of the destruction of foreign armored vehicles, including Leopard tanks.”
Michael Biesecker has the full story:
Eleanor NoyceJune 10, 2023 03:00
