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

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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

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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.

Kyiv mayor orders air-raid shelters to operate around the clock; Washington says training for Ukraine on advanced US Abrams tanks has begun

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Attacks said to be ongoing in Russian border region, but no new casualties; Moscow launches sixth airstrike in six days

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Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Ukraine, has posted some more details of Russia’s overnight attack on Kyiv to his official Telegram channel. He writes:

The occupiers continue to terrorise Ukraine with attack drones and missiles.

Around 11pm the enemy attacked Kyiv with Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones. They entered from the southern direction, using the topography of the area and the course of the Dnieper River.

The aggressor does not stop. Nikopol region came under attack again. At midnight, the Rashists shelled Nikopol. Shells from heavy artillery flew into the city. People are unharmed. Rescuers are examining the area. The enemy is insidious and does not abandon its tactics of terrorising the civilian population.

Freedom of Russia Legion social media reports contradict Russian claims to have repelled the rebel incursion

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Ukrainian-backed Russian rebel groups have said they are still fighting inside Russia’s Belgorod region, despite Moscow’s claims on Thursday to have repelled the incursion.

The Freedom of Russia Legion posted videos on social media of combat purportedly in the Belgorod village Novaya Tavolzhanka, between the Ukrainian-Russian border and the town of Shebekino, the legion’s stated goal.

Kyiv mayor orders air raid shelters to be open 24 hours after death of child; Ukraine claims to have shot down 15 cruise missiles and 21 drones

Governor of Russian border town says drone fell on road way; claims that three people killed in capital sought safety in locked shelter

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 463 of the invasion

Wires are also posting new photos from the Russian city of Shebekino in the Belgorod border region, which Russian officials say was shelled for the fourth time this week by Ukrainian forces.