Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking an international investigation into the dam collapse.
(Photo: dpa)
Riga, Berlin After weeks of eager anticipation, the Ukrainian counteroffensive may now have begun. The US newspaper The Washington Post published a corresponding report on Thursday, citing four members of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Ukrainian troops are stepping up attacks on the country’s southeastern front, they said. The above-mentioned informant could not be named. Therefore, according to the corresponding report, they have no right to publicly discuss developments on the battlefield. However, the Ukrainian military denied the report.
“We have no such information,” a spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff told Reuters. We do not comment on information based on anonymous sources.
Russia said it repelled a Ukrainian attack in the Zaporozhye region. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Ukrainian troops tried to break through the front lines in southern Ukraine at night.
Russia’s Interfax Shoigu news agency cited four separate attack attempts as being repelled. The Ukrainians suffered heavy casualties and were forced to retreat. This information has not been independently verified. Meanwhile, flooding in southern Ukraine caused Russian troops in the affected area to retreat as much as 15 kilometers, according to Ukraine, a military spokesman said.
Consequences of Kachowka Dam Destruction
Russian troops have suffered casualties as a result of the dam’s destruction, according to Ukraine, a view supported by U.S. military analysts. The General Staff said in Kiev on Thursday that the occupiers had not prepared for the consequences of blowing up the dam and lost soldiers, equipment and military technology as a result. There are dead, wounded and missing Russian soldiers. It was not immediately clear how many people, civilian and military, may have been killed.
Experts from the US Institute of War Research (ISW) also found that large amounts of water flowing from the reservoir destroyed Russia’s front-line fortifications.
The flood was caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on Tuesday, which Ukraine blames on Russia. The dam is located in Russian-controlled territory on the Dnieper River. Russia, on the other hand, blames Ukraine. Its president, Vladimir Zelensky, is pushing for an international investigation into the dam collapse.
He said in an interview that when Ukraine regained control of the dam, international experts would be invited to investigate the incident.
>> Read here: Dam breach leaves hundreds of thousands stranded
There was also discussion of whether lapses in maintenance by Russian occupying forces were the cause of the disaster. The pro-opposition Russia research group CIT (Conflict Intelligence Team) wrote “criminal negligence of the occupiers”. The Russian army has not regulated the amount of water released from the reservoir since November last year, and accepted the blasting of the wall.
Pressure mounts on Moscow
As one security expert pointed out, militarily, the disaster hurts Russia more than Ukraine. Part of the Russian fortifications were destroyed by floods.
Kachowka Dam: Blaming each other after breach
When the water is drained, the space in which Ukraine can begin to retake the country will also increase. In a few days, the ground will be dry enough to support armored vehicles, the expert said.
Ultimately, this adds to the routes of the front, which the Russian Armed Forces are already on the defensive and must secure. Ultimately, the pressure was mounting on Russia as the fighting spread across a wide front.
Moscow’s army also lost room to maneuver in the backcourt. In recent days, Ukraine has used artillery and rockets to destroy ammunition and fuel depots, as well as air defense and electronic warfare units far from the front lines.
Selensky travels around
Meanwhile, President Zelenskiy visited some of the affected areas on Thursday. “We will help and rebuild everything that needs rebuilding,” he said in the Kherson region. On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want to personally travel to the flooded area.
The economic consequences of the floods are also becoming more apparent. Parts of the flooded Dnieper River, an important export channel for agricultural products, are currently impassable, Ukraine’s National Shipping Administration reported Thursday.
“It is the main artery of inland waterway navigation in Ukraine. The Kakhovka lock is the last lock on the Dnieper allowing all ships to go to sea,” the agency said on Thursday. Now the door to Ukraine’s exports is blocked. About 50 boats are stranded in the Kachowka reservoir, where the water level is falling.
This is how Handelsblatt reports on the war in Ukraine:
Ukraine also faces the threat of billions of tons of crop failure, according to the government. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, tens of thousands of hectares of farmland have been flooded and at least 500,000 hectares will be left unirrigated.
With proxy material.
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