Ukraine’s domestic security service (SBU) said earlier on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine. A one-and-a-half minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation featured two unidentified men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian. One of the men said “Our saboteur group is there. They wanted to cause fear with this dam. It did not go according to the plan. More than they planned.”
The Kremlin on Friday accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilian victims of flooding caused by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine in repeated shelling attacks, including one pregnant woman. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the purported attacks “barbaric”. Russia did not provide any evidence to back up its claims.
Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin said on Friday that Crimea’s water supply will not be affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, and the peninsula had enough water reserves for 500 days. A canal from the destroyed reservoir fed drinking water to the peninsula. Kyiv cut access to the canal in 2014, after Russia illegally seized Crimea and claimed to annex it.
Vitalii Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, has posted to Telegram to say that for two hours there has been no rise in the level of the Inhulets River, and “accordingly, there is no water rise throughout the region”.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has told Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that Japan is ready to offer emergency humanitarian aid in the wake of the dam explosion and flooding, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said one person had been killed, three were wounded, and four buildings were destroyed from falling debris after Russia’s latest attack. Ukraine’s military shot down four cruise missiles and 10 attack drones during a Russian air strike overnight, the air force said in a statement. It said Russian forces had launched 16 drones and six cruise missiles during the attack, and that two other cruise missiles had struck a civilian object in central Ukraine.
Zelenskiy on Thursday hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. “There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam. “But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.
Russia’s army on Friday reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, saying more than 21 Ukrainian tanks had been destroyed in battles across key sections of the frontline. A spokesperson for Russia’s Vostok group of forces said 13 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed in battles in the Zaporizhzhia region and eight in the Donetsk region. It reported artillery, drone and infantry battles. The claims have not been independently verified.
Evgeny Balitsky, the Russian-imposed acting governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, has announced the formation of a people’s militia.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 33-year-old man was wounded when “Shahed” drones struck an infrastructure object in Bohodukhiv.
Voronezh regional governor Alexander Gusev has said three people were wounded in an attack on the southern Russian city of Voronezh when a drone hit a residential building.
Sweden will allow Nato to base troops on its territory even before it formally joins the defence alliance, the prime minister and defence minister said on Friday. “The government has decided that the Swedish armed forces may undertake preparations with Nato and Nato countries to enable future joint operations,” the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and the defence minister, Pål Jonson, said.
Russia on Thursday denied Ukrainian accusations that it backed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and discriminates against ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea, accusing Kyiv of “blatant lies” at the UN’s top court.
One of Russia’s longest-serving and most respected human rights campaigners Oleg Orlov went on trial on Thursday, facing the prospect of three years in jail if convicted of repeatedly discrediting Russia’s armed forces, his organisation said.
