Ukraine reports first successes in counteroffensive, dozens remain missing after dam destruction

Ukraine has hailed the liberation of its first village since launching a counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion force, as Kyiv said dozens of people were missing as floodwaters subsided following the destruction of a huge dam on the Dnipro river.

“We’re seeing the first results of the counteroffensive,” Ukrainian military spokesman Valeryi Shershen said on Sunday, as national television aired footage of soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag in what they said was the village of Blahodatne in the eastern Donetsk region.

He said Ukraine’s 68th Jaeger Brigade took the village with help from units fighting to the south in Zaporizhzhia region, where analysts expect Kyiv’s forces to try to punch through Russian lines and cut the land connection between the Russian border and occupied Crimea.

Moscow did not immediately comment on the situation in Blahodatne, but it is an area where Russian military bloggers reported some success for Ukraine’s troops over the weekend.

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Also on Sunday, three people were killed and 10 were wounded when Russian forces attacked a boat carrying evacuees from flooded occupied territory to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kherson, the regional governor said.

The area has been stricken by catastrophic flooding after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam which Kyiv and Moscow have accused other of deliberately blowing up.

“Three civilians died, ten more were wounded, including two law enforcement officers,” said Kherson region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin.

In a statement on Telegram messenger, he said a 74-year-old man used his body to shield a woman from Russian fire and was hit in the back and died.

Mr Prokudin’s statement did not make clear how Russian forces attacked the boat.

The incident was first reported by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak who said the boat had been carrying evacuees from flooded areas of occupied territory to the city of Kherson.

“The Russian army attacked a boat with civilians evacuating from the left bank of Kherson region,” Mr Yermak wrote on the Telegram messenger.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the attack. Russia denies targeting civilians.

Kyiv has made clear that it will not announce the start of its long-awaited counteroffensive, but Mr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that “counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place ... but I will not say in detail what stage they are at.”

He also brushed off claims from Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday that Ukraine was already suffering “significant losses” during its counteroffensive.

“I am in touch with our commanders of different sectors every day,” he said. “Everyone is positive. Pass this on to Putin.”

Moscow’s forces continued to fire missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, killing three civilians in the Black Sea port of Odesa on Saturday.

Russia said its military repelled numerous Ukrainian attacks on its positions in the partly occupied Zaporizhzhia region, and struck enemy command posts and ammunition stores and shot down a fighter jet from Kyiv’s air force in the Kherson province.

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Mr Prokhudin said flood levels were falling in the region as the Dnipro river poured billions of cubic metres of water that had been stored behind the Kakhovka dam into the Black Sea – along with debris, dead animals and landmines swept away by the torrent.

The Russian-occupied dam and its hydroelectric power station were destroyed last Tuesday in what Ukraine says was an explosion caused by Moscow’s military. The Kremlin blames Kyiv for the disaster, but analysts say it would have been almost impossible to breach the facility from outside and that the flooding of areas to the south benefits Russia’s army.

Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said 77 towns and villages had been flooded in Kherson and neighbouring Mykolaiv region, and that 35 people were still missing, including seven children, in the former. Six people had been confirmed dead in Kherson, and about 2,700 residents had been evacuated, he added.

Moscow-installed officials on the occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro said that eight people had been killed and almost 7,000 evacuated. Kyiv has accused Russia of bungling the emergency effort in areas it controls and of only evacuating people with Russian passports.

Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Sunday that Russia destroyed the dam to thwart any Ukrainian advance in Kherson region and allow troops to be sent to the Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut fronts.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner group, claimed his mercenaries took control of the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut last month, despite what he called efforts to undermine his fighters by Moscow’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.

The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that Mr Shoigu had ordered all “volunteer units” to sign contracts with his ministry by the end of June. In response, Mr Prigozhin announced: “Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu.” – Additional reporting Reuters