Flooding near the House of Culture in Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson regime in southern Ukraine, after the nearby dam was demolished, June 6, 2023

Monday’s Coverage: Ukrainian Counter-Offensive Liberates Another Village in South

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1659 GMT:

Undergoing his latest trial, the team of imprisoned Russian activist Alexei Navalny has announced a new mass campaign against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

[This is a] long, stubborn and exhaustive but [Tfundamentally important campaign where we will turn people against the war…against the dead-end that Putin crazily and dumbly put us in on February 24, 2022.”

Navalny is already serving sentences of 11 1/2 years in a penal colony. He could be given another 30 years for “extremism”.

Journalists were not allowed to enter the courtroom in the penal colony in Melekhovo, about 145 miles east of Moscow. They could watch on video from a nearby room, but the sound was barely intelligible.

In a three-minute statement, Navalny unsuccessful sought access to the courtroom for his elderly parents, and he contested the authority of the judge from Moscow to try him in the prison far from the capital.

The feed was soon cut, and a court spokesperson said further proceedings would take place behind closed doors…

UPDATE 1337 GMT:

After talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said:

We – and other countries – have received assurances from China that it is not and will not provide lethal assistance to Russia for use in Ukraine. We have not seen any evidence that contradicts that.

What we do have ongoing concerns about, though, are Chinese firms – companies — that may be providing technology that Russia can use to advance its aggression in Ukraine.

We have asked the Chinese government to be very vigilant about that.

In February, with Russian intelligence services expecting Chinese support, Blinken warned then-Foreign Minister Wang Yi that provision of lethal military aid to Russia was a “red line” for the US and the international community.

Since then, Beijing has moved away from Vladimir Putin towards a middle position in the conflict, promoting a 12-point “peace plan” and putting Kyiv and Moscow on the same level of “strategic relationship”.

UPDATE 1327 GMT:

The Ukrainian army has lost less than 10% of Western-supplied equipment in the opening phase of its counter-offensive, says Col. Margo Grosberg, the commander of Estonia’s Defense Forces intelligence service.

Grosberg pointed to the superior protection of the Western equipment, ensuring crews can survive and avoid serious injuries even when equipment becomes inoperable.

Echoing Ukrainian officials, he said advanced Ukrainian units and equipment have not yet been used in the counter-offensive, which continues to probe for vulnerabilities in Russian lines of defense.

UPDATE 1005 GMT:

The Kremlin has responded to UN criticism that it is not allowing humanitarian aid into Russian-occupied areas after the June 6 demolition of the Nova Kakhovka Dam and flooding of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov used the pretext of “security concerns” — also used by Russia for its deadly intervention in Syria, preventing aid and inspection of the Assad regime’s chemical attacks. He made the unsupported claim:

Constant shelling is going on, constant provocations, civilian objects are being shelled, people and the population are being shelled, people are dying. So it’s all very difficult here – it’s very difficult to ensure their safety.

In fact, amid the flooding Russian forces have continued shelling of civilians in Ukraine-controlled territory, including this morning (see 0943 GMT). The attacks, including on evacuating residents, have killed several and wounded scores.

UPDATE 0959 GMT:

A clip of Sunday’s liberation by Ukrainian forces of the village of Piatykhatky in the Zaporizhzhia region on the southern front….

A soldier says, “Today, June 18, the forces of 128 assault brigade chased out the Russians from the village of Piatykhatky. The Russians ran away leaving equipment and ammunition. Glory to Ukraine!”

UPDATE 0943 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed four Russian cruise missiles and four Iranian-made attack drones overnight.

However, Russian shelling of Kherson city in southern Ukraine has caused damage, even as parts of the city and four other settlements — a total of almost 850 houses — remain submerged from the flood following the June 6 demolition of the Nova Kakhovka Dam.

UPDATE 0556 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has scoffed at Vladimir Putin’s propaganda that Russia has destroyed US-made Patriot air defense systems.

Since their delivery this spring, the Patriots have helped ensured that not a single Russian missile hit its target in Kyiv in more than 20 waves of attacks. They have enabled Ukraine to down Moscow’s hypersonic Khinzal missiles for the first time.

Putin insisted at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum over the weekend that five Patriot systems have been destroyed.

In his nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskiy responded, “They are still here, they are working, all of them are shooting down Russian missiles. As efficiently as possible. Not a single Patriot has been destroyed.”

Zelenskiy thanked Ukraine’s “defenders of the sky” and said they had launched “more than a hundred group air strikes on enemy positions and rear” over the past week.

UPDATE 0545 GMT:

Rostyslav Shurma, a deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, says Ukraine will seek up to $40 billion for the first phase of a “Green Marshall Plan” reconstructing its economy.

Politicians and financiers meet in two days in London from Wednesday to discuss the rebuilding of the country after the defeat of the Russian invasion.

The World Bank estimates Ukraine’s reconstruction will cost $411 billion, three times its gross domestic product.

Shurma said the first focus of the reconstruction will be the iron and steel industry. The sector contributed about 10% of Ukrainian GDP and a third of export revenues in 2021, and employed about 600,000 people.

With production accounting for 15% of Ukraine’s carbon emissions, Shurma said there is an opportunity to build an industry based on renewable energy.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Amid assessments that Russia blew up the Nova Kakhovka Dam on June 6, flooding the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, the UN says Moscow continues to block humanitarian aid to victims in Russian-occupied areas.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said, “We urge the Russian authorities to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law. Aid cannot be denied to people who need it.”

Brown assured:

The UN will continue to do all it can to reach all people – including those suffering as a result of the recent dam destruction — who urgently need life-saving assistance, no matter where they are.

Aid cannot be denied to people who need it.

The statement followed two more expert analyses, reinforcing the initial assessment of international legal experts, that the Russians detonated explosives to bring down the dam.

On Saturday, a New York Times investigation concluded that it was “highly likely” that Russian forces planted explosives in a small passagement in the concrete base of the dam.

Michael West, a geotechnical engineer and expert in dam safety and failure analysis, explained, “If your objective is to destroy the dam itself, a large explosion would be required. The gallery is an ideal place to put that explosive charge.”

On Sunday, the Associated Press posted drone photos and other evidence which pointed to an explosives-filled car atop the dam. Russian troops were stationed in the area where the bombs were placed.

Yesterday, the official death toll from the flooding rose to 17 in Ukrainian-held areas and 35 in Russian-occupied territory.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said another 31 people are missing and about 1,300 houses remain flooded. More than 3,600 people have been evacuated from the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

In the days after the detonation of the Dam, residents and aid workers said Russian authorities were preventing the entry of assistance and help for evacuations.

Amnesty International summarized on Thursday:

[We have] spoken to volunteers and evacuees from the flooded areas and their relatives, whose testimonies consistently indicate that occupying Russian forces have failed to carry out organized evacuations or provide crucial humanitarian support to civilians stranded in flooded towns and villages.

Civilians in flooded areas have reported that those without Russian passports are being forced to undergo the humiliating and intrusive ‘filtration’ screening process.