Moscow (EFE) with the blowing up of a second dam.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski kept his word that Kiev would no longer wait for Western weapons to launch the expected counterattack, although he has asked Germany for new batches of Leopard 2 tanks and Marder armored vehicles.
As both sides have recognized, the bloodiest fighting is taking place in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, something from which the flooded Kherson is getting rid of, impassable at the moment due to flooding from the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Ukraine, first territorial revenues
To the two villages liberated over the weekend in Donetsk -Blahodatne and Neskuchne-, two other bastions controlled by the troops in the same region -Storozhove and Makarovke- and a fifth in Zaporizhia (Novodarivka) were added today.
“The flag is flying again in Storozhove. And the same will happen with all the peoples until we liberate all the Ukrainian territory”, proclaimed the marines from the port of Odesa, who would have liquidated fifty Russian soldiers, four of whom were taken prisoner.
In the case of Zaporizhia, 80% controlled by the Russians, the objective of the operation is to reach the Azov, turned into an inland sea by Moscow, and recover the ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk.
In addition, kyiv has also announced advances by its troops on the flanks of Bakhmut, a city that it lost a month ago at the hands of Wagner’s mercenaries.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukraine could also have achieved territorial gains near Velika Novosilka (Donetsk) and around Orijiv, a town that leads to the main Russian-controlled Zaporizhia city, Melitopol.
Russia today admitted to using assault helicopters and drones to slow down the Ukrainian advance on the administrative border between Donetsk and Zaporizhia.
Last Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin proudly assured that all the Ukrainian offensive attempts had “failed”, but acknowledged that kyiv retained its “offensive potential”. He was right in the last assessment of him.
Russia, no going back
Meanwhile, Russia, which celebrated its national day on Monday amid tight security for fear of Ukrainian drones, stood by.
The Russian Defense Ministry insisted in its daily report that its troops have repulsed up to five enemy attacks in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, where kyiv reportedly lost hundreds of men.
According to Defense, the most intense hostilities take place around the strongholds of Márinka and Avdíivka, on the outskirts of the regional capital of Donetsk.
“For more than a week they (Russian soldiers) have successfully repelled the counter-offensive of the bloody NATO-backed Kiev regime,” Viacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Duma, or chamber of deputies, wrote on Telegram.
In return, according to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, the Russian Army would have seen itself forced to mobilize troops stationed in Jerson towards the Donetsk and Zaporiyia area.
In addition, kyiv today accused Moscow of blowing up a new dam, this time in Donetsk, in order to stop enemy attacks.
“The occupiers have blown up a dam on the Mokri Yaly river, causing flooding on both banks of the river,” said Ukrainian army spokesman for the Tavria region, Valeri Shershen.
Of course, the destruction of the dam, which is located near the border with Zaporizhia, “does not affect the offensive operations” of Ukraine in the area, he added.
Water levels drop in Jershon
After a week, the water levels in the areas flooded by the Kajovka dam have dropped significantly, authorities admitted on both banks of the Dnieper River.
According to the Ministry for Emergency Situations, more than a thousand houses have already been released from the water, although the return of their tenants is not advised.
The Russian hydroelectric company, RusHydro, calculates that the water will return to its normal course next Friday, at least in the lower part of the hydroelectric plant.
As for the victims, the Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine raised the dead to 10 and the missing to 42, while Moscow maintains the eight deceased.
Precisely, given the discrepancies in the measurements of the water level of the pond that is used to cool the Zaporizhia atomic power station, the general director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, left on Monday for Ukraine, where he will meet with Zelensky. and will inspect the plant.