Agriculture ministry warns of greater disaster next year, with global implications, from loss of Kakhovka reservoir

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The fields of southern Ukraine could “turn into deserts” by next year, the country’s agrarian and food ministry said after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the draining of its reservoir, which had irrigated one of the world’s breadbaskets.

Ukrainian emergency services and aid organisations carried out a second day of rescue operations to help the 42,000 people estimated to be at immediate risk from flooding downstream of the dam, including making some forays to the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River to save people cut off in flooded towns.

Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council dismisses claim counteroffensive has begun; Rishi Sunak says UK ‘can’t say definitively’ whether Russia was responsible

• People in Ukraine: do you live near the Nova Kakhovka dam?

Neither the French, US or British representatives at the UN directly said there was evidence of Russian responsibility, but called for an investigation and insisted their support for Ukraine was unwavering.

Outside the UN security council chamber on Tuesday, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, said: “We’re not certain at all, we hope to have more information in the coming days.

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• Russia-Ukraine war live updates: thousands evacuated amid flooding as UN says scale of dam disaster will only be clear in coming days – latest news
• People in Ukraine: do you live near the Nova Kakhovka dam?

Ukraine’s National Police force are asking people in affected villages to evacuate.

The Police said on Telegram a moment ago:

Units of the National Police and the State Emergency Service of the Kherson region were alerted to alert and evacuate the civilian population from potential flooding zones on the right bank of the Dnieper River, namely: the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Lyovo, Tyaginka, Poniativka, Ivanovka, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Prydniprovske, Sadove and partly the city of Kherson - Korabel Island.

The water level is rising and everyone who is in the danger zone must:

❗️ In the Kherson region, the settlements on the right bank of the Dnieper have been named as being at risk of flooding

Evacuation of the civilian population from potential flood zones on the right bank of the Dnieper River is underway, namely:

Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam; people in parts of Kherson and the surrounding area urged to evacuate

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Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff says he ‘does not understand’ how there are any doubts that Russian forces blew up the dam. In a statement, Andriy Yermak said: “At 2.50am, Russian troops blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and its dam. I do not understand how there can be any doubt about this. Both constructions are located in the temporary Russian-occupied territories. Neither shelling nor any other external influence was capable of destroying the structures. The explosion came from within.”

The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of deliberately sabotaging the dam. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, told reporters: “We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side.” He said [Russian president] Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation.

The US “cannot say conclusively” who was responsible. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House: “We’re doing the best we can to assess”, noting “destruction of civilian infrastructure is not allowed by the laws of war”. Earlier Tuesday, NBC News reported that the US government had intelligence indicating Russia was behind the incident, according to two US officials and one western official.

The Ukrainian government called for people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding. Energy company Ukrahydroenergo said the hydroelectric power plant at the dam had been blown up from the inside and was irreparable.

The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said about 16,000 people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the river.

The areas most under threat of flooding are the islands along the course of the Dnipro downstream of Nova Kakhovka and much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson. Andrey Alekseyenko, one of the Russian-installed officials in occupied Kherson, has posted to Telegram to say that up to 22,000 people are in the flood plains in Russian-controlled territory.

Hanna Maliar says Kyiv’s forces are moving to ‘offensive actions’, heightening speculation that a counteroffensive is close to launch. This live blog is closed

• At a glance: what we know on day 466 of the invasion

At least 90 supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny were reportedly arrested on Sunday after defying authorities to hold demonstrations to mark his 47th birthday, the Associated Press has said.

Navalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court, charges he says were trumped up to punish him for his work to expose official corruption and organise anti-Kremlin protests. He is facing a new trial on extremism charges that could keep him in prison for decades.

Russia’s defence ministry claims Ukraine has launched a ‘major’ attack; young girl found dead in rubble of house in Dnipro attack

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Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Monday that Ukraine had launched a “major” attack in the Donetsk region, the Russian state news agency Tass reported. The ministry said Ukraine had launched the attack using six mechanised and two tank battalions but that Russian forces had thwarted it. It is not yet possible to confirm Russia’s claim, and the Ukrainian side has not yet responded. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said in an interview published on Saturday that Ukraine was ready to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory. “We strongly believe that we will succeed.”

A two-year-old girl has been found dead under the rubble of a house after a missile attack that hit several buildings near the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said. Another 22 people were injured, including five children, said Serhiy Lysak. Three boys – aged 15, 11 and six – were in intensive care after the strike.

Russia launched a wave of air attacks on Ukraine early on Sunday morning but military officials jn Kyiv said air defence systems repelled all missiles and drones on their approach to the capital. All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for nearly three hours.

The Russian defence ministry has said its forces have used artillery to repel a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian saboteurs, Interfax news agency reported. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said earlier on Sunday that fighting with a “Ukrainian saboteur group” was taking place in the town of Novaya Tavolzhanka, near the Ukrainian border.

A Ukrainian minister has expressed “disbelief” after learning that nearly half of Kyiv bomb shelters inspected during an initial audit were closed or unfit for use. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, said on Sunday that out of 1,078 shelters examined on the first day, 359 were unprepared and another 122 locked, while 597 were found to be usable.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has said he is willing to meet a pro-Ukraine group of Russian fighters keeping two Russian soldiers captive. The group said earlier it was willing to hand over the soldiers in exchange for a meeting with the governor.

Ukrainian forces have shelled a market area in the town of Shebekino, near the Ukrainian border, according to Gladkov. He said no one was injured but the attack had caused fires to break out near the market, a private area and a grain depot.

The Kremlin has said any supply of long-range missiles to Kyiv by France and Germany would lead to a further round of “spiralling tension” in the Ukraine conflict. Britain last month became the first country to supply Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles.

Zelenskiy has said that Russia’s war, now in its 16th month, has killed at least 500 Ukrainian children. It was impossible to establish the exact number of children who have become casualties, however, because of the continuing fighting and because some areas are under Russian occupation, he said.

Four people have been detained in a criminal investigation into the death of a Kyiv woman outside a locked air-raid shelter, the Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office has said. It said one person, a security guard who had failed to unlock the doors, remained under arrest, while three others, including a local official, had been put under house arrest.

Five drones were shot down and four were jammed and did not hit their targets in Dzhankoi in Crimea, according to a Russian official. There were no casualties but windows were broken in several houses, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, said on Sunday.

Girl’s body pulled from wreckage and 22 injured after strike Volodymyr Zelenskiy blames on Russia; fires reported in Shebekino town

• What we know on day 466 of Russia’s invasion

Rescue teams search through rubble after an airstrike hits a residential district in Ukraine’s central city of Dnipro.

Rescuers were seen digging with their bare hands as they searched for survivors among the debris.

Twenty-two people injured including five children, while row continues over closed air raid shelters

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

A two-year-old girl was found dead under the rubble of a house near the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight as recriminations continued about the availability of air raid shelters in the capital.

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipro region, said another 22 people were injured, including five children, in an attack that destroyed or damaged several buildings.

Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin criticises factionalism within Russian hierarchy

Petraeus continued to discuss Putin and whether he could escalate attacks:

I think you can’t dismiss it. But I think that the actions to dissuade him from doing that have been very considerable. And I think I would certainly hope that they have convinced him that he and Russia would be much worse off if tactical nuclear weapons were used.

President Xi, his partner without limits has actually turned out to have very distinct limits, and prime minister Modi from India at their summit, some months back, both of them made it very clear that this is something he shouldn’t even think about.

I do tend to think that they [Ukraine] will cut this ability of the Russians to resupply Crimea, along the southeast coast, they will severe that line of communication and begin the process of isolating Crimea as well.

Not in this counteroffensive. No.

But if they can get to the point of beginning to isolate Crimea, I think that changes the dynamics very, very substantially. It couldn’t even prompt Putin to start to consider a negotiated resolution.