Continued evacuation after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, outraged Zelensky… Situation in Ukraine

In Ukraine, attention is focused on the banks of the Dnieper as water levels continue to rise downstream of the Kakhovka Dam, which collapsed early on 6 June. Both sides continue to accuse each other of destroying infrastructure located in the territory occupied by Russia, while the evacuation of civilians continues.

Race against rising waters. Downstream of the dam, the water continues to rise, leading to a race against time to evacuate civilians living in flooded areas as quickly as possible. On the streets of the center of Kherson, located 70 kilometers downstream of the Dnieper from Kakhovka, on June 7 the water reached the belt. Below, at the edge of the river, she rose five meters.

Evacuations. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Igor Klymenko, 1894 people were evacuated from the territories controlled by Ukraine, where more than 1600 rescuers and police were mobilized. According to him, 30 settlements were flooded, including 10 under Russian control. Ukrainian authorities will have to evacuate “more than 17000” civilians, Prosecutor General Andrei Kostin said on Tuesday.

From the Russian side, the authorities evacuated “more than 4000 people” and a state of emergency was declared in the Moscow-controlled part of the Kherson region. An unknown number of civilians also fled the flooded areas on both sides on their own.

Zelensky is angry. The President of Ukraine on Wednesday expressed regret over the lack of humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and the Red Cross after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. “The UN, the United Nations and the representatives of the Red Cross are not present. All these hours they are still gone”Zelensky stated this in an interview with the German media Welt TV and Bild. He said to himself “I’m shocked” because “these are the forces that need to be there to save people’s lives.”

French reaction. The day after the collapse of the dam, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned “a heinous act that threatens the population”after a telephone conversation with Vladimir Zelensky. He announced the dispatch “in the coming hours”from “assistance with urgent needs” Ukraine in the face of this catastrophe.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has decided to hold an aid coordination meeting on June 8 with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba via videoconference after “scandalous destruction” from the Kakhovka dam. London is on his side pending further comments, “All items in stock” said British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, who stressed the day before that, if necessary, such an act “war crime”.

Negotiations with Turkey. For its part, China expressed “deep concern”, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed the creation of an international commission of inquiry. During a conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had mentioned “humanitarian and environmental consequences” about the destruction of the dam. Vladimir Putin assured the President of Turkey that he was sorry “large-scale environmental and humanitarian catastrophe” in Ukraine after “barbaric act” what he blames Kyiv.

New incident. Moscow and Kyiv also accuse each other of destroying a pipeline near Massyutovka, a small village controlled by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region (northeastern Ukraine). The pipeline connecting the Russian city of Tolyatti on the banks of the Volga with Odessa, the most important Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, before the war allowed more than 2.5 million tons of ammonia, a key component of mineral fertilizers, to be exported to Russia, in particular, to the European Union.

Part of the equipment was damaged as a result of the attack “it is essential to ensure food security in the world”, lamented Russian diplomacy. Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the Ukrainian region, on the contrary, on the eve accused the Russian army of bombing infrastructure. It was suspended with the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, and Moscow has demanded its renewal.

Bakhmut. From the front, Ukraine again announced an advance near the ruined city of Bakhmut in the east. According to Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar, the Kyiv troops have moved forward. “from 200 meters to 1.1 km”.