Ukraine retakes more villages as impact of dam destruction spirals

Ukraine claimed to have retaken more villages in the early stages of its counteroffensive, and accused Russia’s invasion force of blowing up a second dam to slow its troops and of laying explosives to potentially destroy a chemicals factory in occupied Crimea.

Kyiv’s military said it liberated Novodarivka in Zaporizhzhia region and nearby Storozheve in Donetsk province on Monday, a day after troops raised the Ukrainian flag in three other villages in the area. An army spokesman said Ukraine was also regaining ground on the flanks around the occupied city of Bakhmut, 150km to the northeast.

They are the opening gains of Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive and its first concerted push forward for several months, but represent limited progress given that Kyiv is yet to use the bulk of its forces or reach Russia’s main lines of defence in occupied territory.

Moscow insisted its troops were repelling all Ukrainian attacks and striking enemy arms depots and barracks with missiles, but Ukraine’s claimed gains tally with areas where Russian military bloggers said its forces had made progress in recent days.

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Ukraine said its troops had not been slowed by local flooding resulting from Russian forces’ destruction of a small dam on the Mokri Yaly river that runs close to the newly liberated villages.

A week after the huge Kakhovka dam was breached by an explosion apparently caused by Russian troops at the facility, forcing thousands of people to flee inundated towns and villages on the Dnipro river, flood levels continued to fall but fears grew over water supplies, potential disease and long-term environmental and economic damage in the area.

The 600,000 residents of Kryvyi Rih, an eastern industrial city that relied on the now draining Kakhovka reservoir, have been told to slash water consumption to avert a severe crisis.

“The first option is that we do not cut back and, in a month, 70 per cent of the city will have no water. The second option is to cut back and gain time to carry out the required work. There are no other options,” said city mayor Oleksandr Vilkul.

“Industrial enterprises have already reduced consumption to a minimum…but the main consumer of water is the city population. It is very important for everyone to cut water consumption by 40 per cent. Everyone should do it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said the destruction of the Kakhovka dam had severely reduced water flow to the Titan chemical works in annexed Crimea, making full operation impossible and prompting Russian troops to plan for the evacuation of the surrounding town of Armyansk and to lay explosives at the facility.

The agency said the plant contained 200 tonnes of ammonia and warned of “terrible” consequences for parts of Crimea and neighbouring Kherson region if it was destroyed.

International Atomic Energy Agency director Rafael Grossi said he was travelling to Ukraine amid concern for the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which drew water for cooling systems from the Kakhovka reservoir. Experts say the facility is currently stable.