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☆ Kherson is hit by Russian shelling hours after a Zelensky visit.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Marc Santora | Maria Varenikova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russian forces shelled the flood-stricken city of Kherson on Thursday, striking close to an evacuation point, only hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the city to witness the aftermath of the destruction of a dam on the Dnipro River earlier this week. Hundreds of people who were gathered near an evacuation point at Ship Square, in the heart of the city, scrambled for cover when explosions rang out, witnesses said, describing multiple strikes in and around the square. Volunteers, medics, emergency workers and rescue teams involved in coordinating aid efforts have been meeting on higher ground near the square, which is itself flooded but is being used as an evacuation point because it is a known landmark. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said that eight people were injured in the shelling near Ship Square, including two employees of the State Emergency Service and a police officer. “Information about the dead has not yet been received,” it added.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky Organizations: . Volunteers, Ministry, State Emergency Service Locations: Kherson, Dnipro

A critical dam on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine broke overnight on Tuesday, endangering tens of thousands of people who live downstream. Russia said that Ukrainian forces had carried out sabotage. Located near the front line of the war in the southern Kherson region, the dam and nearby infrastructure have been damaged by shelling throughout the war. The area including the dam and the adjacent hydroelectric plant has been occupied by Russian forces since last year. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine blamed “Russian terrorists,” while the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, blamed Ukrainian forces, describing what happened as sabotage.

Persons: António Guterres, Nova Kakhovka, Volodymyr Zelensky, “, Dmitri S, Peskov, ” Natalia Humeniuk, Radio Svoboda, Sergei K, John F, Kirby, Ihor Syrota Organizations: The New York Times, Engineering, Radio, Kyiv, National Security Council, Russian, of Locations: Dnipro, Ukraine, Russia, Kherson, Nova, Ukrainian, Donetsk, United States, Russian, Antonivka, Zaporizhzhia, Crimea, Kakhovka, of Culture

A deliberate explosion inside the Kakhovka dam, on the front line of the war in Ukraine, most likely caused its collapse on Tuesday, according to engineering and munitions experts, who said that structural failure or an attack from outside the dam were possible but less plausible explanations. Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for the failure, noting that Moscow’s military forces — which have repeatedly struck Ukrainian infrastructure since invading last year — controlled the dam spanning the Dnipro River in the city of Nova Kakhovka, putting them in a position to detonate explosives from within. Russian officials, in turn, blamed Ukraine, but did not elaborate on how it might have been done. For months, each side in the war has repeatedly accused the other of plotting to sabotage the hydroelectric dam, without offering evidence — allegations that rarely rose above the wartime fog of claims and counterclaims, both real and fabricated. Just last week, both said an attack on the dam was imminent; Ukrainian officials said the Russians wanted to create an emergency at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which uses river water for cooling, to stall an expected Ukrainian offensive.

Organizations: Nova Kakhovka Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Dnipro, Nova

A major dam on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday, sending torrents of water cascading through the breach, flooding a war zone downstream, putting tens of thousands of residents at risk and raising the possibility of long-lasting environmental and humanitarian disasters. Ukraine and Russia quickly blamed each other for the calamity. But some top European officials denounced Russia. Engineering and munitions experts said a deliberate explosion inside the dam had most likely caused its collapse. The dam’s destruction was a “monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe,” and “yet another example of the horrific price of war on people,” said António Guterres, the United Nations’ secretary general.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Dmitry S, Peskov, ”, António Guterres Organizations: Engineering, United Nations Locations: Dnipro, Ukraine, Russia, Nova

☆ As Water From Destroyed Dam Rise, Ukrainians Face a Fresh New Horror
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Marc Santora | Evelina Riabenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The early morning explosion that woke Oksana Alfiorova from her sleep seemed normal enough, at least for wartime Kherson. But even for Kherson, she soon realized Tuesday morning, things were far from normal. A dam had been destroyed, and soon the power went out, the gas stopped working and the water supply to her apartment stopped flowing. So Ms. Alfiorova did something she had long resisted despite all the hardships of the past year and a half: She fled. She boarded an evacuation train from Kherson to Mykolaiv, about 40 miles to the west, stepping out onto Platform 1, homeless for the first time in her life.

Persons: Oksana Alfiorova, Alfiorova, — Locations: Kherson, Dnipro, Mykolaiv

Registering for aid and receiving instructions after arriving in Mykolaiv from Kherson, Ukraine, on Tuesday following damage to the Kakhovka dam. Evacuees, who fled after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed, exiting a train in Mykolaiv on Tuesday. In Mykolaiv, the southern port city, an emergency train pulled out of the station to collect people fleeing the rising waters in Kherson, about 40 miles to the east. The city of Kherson straddles the Dnipro River, which has become a front line in the war, dividing the warring armies. It mostly sits on elevated land but there are some neighborhoods close to the river bank where flooding has already been reported.

Persons: ”, don’t, “, Brendan Hoffman, The New York Times Alim, Chupyna, Olha Napkhanenko, Serhiy Prytula, ” Svitlana, Sitnik Organizations: Volunteers, Red Cross, ., The New York Times, Foundation, Telegram, “ Local Locations: Mykolaiv, Kherson, Ukraine, Dnipro, Vasyl, Ostriv, ”, Ukrainian, Russian, Oleshky, Crimea

The road bridge at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant last year. The damage reported on Tuesday threatens the nearby nuclear power plant and local communities. A critical dam on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine was split in half overnight Tuesday, posing significant risks to the safety of a nearby nuclear power plant and surrounding communities. Located near the front line of the war in the southern Kherson region, the barrier and nearby infrastructure have been damaged throughout the war. It has provided water for drinking, agriculture and the cooling of the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Persons: Nova Kakhovka, “, Kyrylo Budanov, Vladimir Leontiev, Oleksandr Prokudin Organizations: Tuesday, The New York Times, RIA Novosti Locations: Dnipro, Ukraine, Kherson, Nova, Russian, Russia

☆ A Critical Dam Is Destroyed on Ukraine’s Front Line
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Matthew Cullen | Justin Porter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Kakhovka dam and electric plant on the front line in southern Ukraine was destroyed today, sending torrents of water through the breach and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Russia and Ukraine were quick to blame each other for the disaster, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible. Officials in Kyiv said that Moscow’s forces had blown up the Russian-controlled dam in the predawn hours, a day after U.S. officials said it appeared a Ukrainian counteroffensive had begun. More than 40,000 people could be in the path of the flooding in both Ukrainian- and Russian-controlled territory, a Ukrainian official said. “People here are shocked,” said our colleague Marc Santora, who was in southern Ukraine.

Persons: ”, Marc Santora, “ They’ve Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Ukrainian, Antonivka

☆ Russian Missiles Kill 3 in Kyiv, Including Mother and 9-Year-Old Girl
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Marc Santora | Anatoly Kurmanaev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Listening to the wail of air-raid sirens, a mother and her 9-year-old daughter raced through the Ukrainian capital’s early morning darkness on Thursday to a clinic, where a bomb shelter promised escape from another Russian missile barrage. But the clinic was locked, the authorities said. After explosions roared, the woman and her daughter were found dead among green trees and broken glass, just outside the door. “People were knocking, knocking for a very long time,” the husband of the third victim, who gave his name as Yaroslav, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster. They described the girl, her mother, 34, and the other woman, 33, as the latest casualties of Russia’s punishing and relentless campaign on civilians.

Persons: Yaroslav Locations: Kyiv

☆ ‘We Have No Days Off’: The Nonstop Work of Ukrainian Air Defenses
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the month of May alone, Russia bombarded Kyiv 17 times. It has fired hypersonic missiles from MIG-31 fighter jets and attacked with land-based ballistic missiles powerful enough to level an entire apartment block. Russian bombers and ships have fired dozens of long-range cruise missiles, and more than 200 attack drones have featured in blitzes meant to confuse and overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Even when Ukraine manages to blast missiles from the sky, falling debris can bring death and destruction. Early Thursday, Russia sent a volley of 10 ballistic missiles at Kyiv; Ukrainian officials said they were all shot down but that falling fragments killed three people, including a child, and injured more than a dozen others.

Organizations: Kyiv Locations: Kyiv, Russia, Ukraine, Ukrainian

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, yet again with a missile attack in the early hours of Thursday, killing three people, including a mother and child who were not able to get into a shelter, officials said. Ukraine’s general staff headquarters said Kyiv had been attacked by a volley of 10 Iskander ballistic missiles, all of which were shot down. “For 15 months, Russian aggression and terror have been destroying not just buildings, but fundamental human rights — the fundamental rights of our children,” he said. Officials in Kyiv said that some Children’s Day events scheduled for Thursday had been canceled. Andrew E. Kramer and Nicole Tung reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Victoria Kim from Seoul.

Persons: Kyiv’s, Vitali Klitschko, Ukraine’s, Klitschko, ”, Volodymyr Zelensky, Andrew E, Kramer, Nicole Tung, Victoria Kim, Marc Santora, Juston Jones Organizations: Police Locations: KYIV, Ukraine, Russia, Kyiv, Seoul, New York

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine was behind what it described as a “terrorist attack” and that all eight were intercepted. Several buildings in Moscow were damaged, and some residents were evacuated early Tuesday, the city’s mayor said. At least two of the drones crashed into residential towers, Russian state media reported, citing state emergency services. It was the 17th assault on the city this month, a spate of attacks that has taken a toll on residents. On Monday, Kyiv was targeted with 11 ballistic missiles shortly after 11 a.m.

☆ Russian Missile Attack on Kyiv Sends Civilians Racing for Cover
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Marc Santora | Natalia Yermak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even in a city where people have adapted the routines of ordinary life to wartime, the spectacle unfolding overhead in Kyiv was areminder that while the fighting has been concentrated hundred of miles east, the Ukrainian capital still has a Russian bull’s-eye on it. Ballistic missiles began roaring in shortly after 11 a.m. Monday — a rare daytime barrage that sent city residents racing for cover — and were quickly shot down. Then the attacks erupted again early Tuesday, making it clear that even as Kyiv, aided by Western allies, builds up its air-defense system, Russian forces are intent on testing for soft spots. Russia is trying to “confuse and mislead our air defense system,” Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force Command, said in an appearance on national television over the weekend. “It uses the topography of the area to disappear from radars.”

☆ Kyiv Repels Its Largest Ever Drone Attack Launched by Russian Forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Marc Santora | Andrés R. Martínez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Explosions echoed across Ukraine’s capital for hours before dawn on Sunday as air defense teams raced to combat the largest swarm of Russian attack drones targeting Kyiv since the war began more than 15 months ago. The Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down 52 out of 54 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones aimed at targets in central Ukraine, describing the number launched as a record. As Ukraine draws closer to launching a counteroffensive aimed at reclaiming land lost in the first months of the war, Moscow has stepped up its assaults on Kyiv. The capital has been attacked 14 times this month by waves of Russian drones, cruise missiles and sophisticated ballistic missiles. “This was the largest-ever drone attack on the capital since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, particularly using Shahed loitering munitions,” the Kyiv military administration said in a statement.

☆ Ukraine’s Top Commander Signals Counteroffensive Could Be Imminent
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Marc Santora | Eric Schmitt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine’s top military commander signaled on Saturday morning that the nation’s forces were ready to launch their long-anticipated counteroffensive following months of preparations, including recently stepped-up attacks on logistical targets as well as feints and disinformation intended to keep Russian forces on edge. “It’s time to get back what’s ours,” Ukraine’s supreme military commander, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, wrote in a statement. But General Zaluzhnyi offered no indication of where and when Ukrainian forces might try to break Russia’s hold on occupied territory. Other senior Ukrainian officials also suggested that the counteroffensive was imminent. Oleksiy Danilov, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, told the BBC in an interview released on Saturday that Kyiv’s forces were “ready” and that a large-scale assault could come “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week.”

Bakhmut is obliterated. As fighting around the city in eastern Ukraine rages on, drone footage taken by The New York Times on Friday captured the scorched buildings, destroyed schools, and cratered parks that now define Bakhmut. What looks like an early-morning haze spreading across the shattered skyline is the acrid smoke that hung heavy after another night of relentless shelling. The Russians are declaring victory in this battle, the war’s longest and bloodiest. It was not immediately possible to know who the people are, where they are going and how they survived.

☆ Wagner Chief Says Bakhmut Is Taken; Ukraine Rejects Claim
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The head of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group said his mercenaries had captured Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, a claim the Ukrainian military denied even as their soldiers have been forced into an ever shrinking patch of land inside the ruined city. Senior Ukrainian military officials acknowledged that the situation inside the city was “critical,” with soldiers facing an unrelenting barrage of artillery fire and powerful aerial bombardments. Nevertheless, they said, the Ukrainian forces were still engaged in combat operations. The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin released a statement confirming the city had been “liberated,” hours after the declaration by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, that the fight for the city was over. After nearly a year of fighting, Bakhmut has taken on an outsize importance: a symbol of Ukrainian defiance and of Russian leaders’ determination to blast their way to a small victory in a little-known corner of eastern Ukraine.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, President Biden told the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, that he could not have American precision missile systems. It all raises the question: Are there any conventional weapons in the American or NATO arsenals that the president would not, eventually, provide to Ukraine? Washington’s pattern of saying no before saying yes has repeated itself enough times over the past 15 months that Ukrainian officials say they now know to ignore the first answer and keep pressing. And after China’s leader, Xi Jinping, explicitly warned late last year against threatening the use of nuclear weapons, Mr. Putin has quieted down. Some experts warn that Mr. Putin hasn’t dropped his nuclear threats; just delayed them.

☆ How Ukraine Reversed the Momentum in Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Marc Santora | Tyler Hicks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukrainian soldiers were waiting for just the right moment to attack. Then they received critical intelligence: Russian mercenaries on the other side of the front line outside Bakhmut were about to rotate out and be replaced by other soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers were told to get their kits ready, making sure they had plenty of grenades and full clips of ammunition. It was the morning of May 6, the beginning of three days of fighting on the outskirts of Bakhmut that has shifted momentum in the fiercest battle of the war. Soldiers from Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade battled with the Russians across forest belts where the trees rose like scorched matchsticks.

☆ Gains Near Bakhmut Raise Ukraine’s Hopes of a Turning Tide
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Russian forces spent nearly a year carving a path of devastation and death in their bid to surround the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, and by March it seemed they were close to succeeding. “The pincers are closing,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group that spearheaded Russia’s bloody drive. He was wrong. The pincers never closed, and now Ukrainian forces have pried them farther open, taking back territory north and south of the ruined city in a few days that it took the Russians many weeks to capture. Moscow’s troops still hold most of Bakhmut itself, Ukraine’s recent gains around the city are not large, and there is no guarantee that they will last.

☆ As Ukraine Makes Inroads in Bakhmut, Devastation Still Reigns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Marc Santora | Tyler Hicks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With the furious battle for the city of Bakhmut raging at their backs, a squad of Ukrainian soldiers tore through an open field, racing to get out of range of falling Russian artillery. The three soldiers — known by the call signs Omar, Chip and Bandit — had spent the day on Friday taking part in Ukrainian offensive operations on the edge of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, blasting Russian tanks and armored vehicles. But after surviving another brutal day of battle, they worried that the punctured tire might doom them. The men, who recounted their story on Saturday just outside the nearby town of Chasiv Yar, were among the hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers ordered on the offensive around Bakhmut in recent days. The fighting has often been hard, they said, with many Russians willing to die rather than surrender even when surrounded.

☆ Undaunted by Air Raids, a Ukrainian Duo Gets Ready for Eurovision
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Marc Santora | Alex Marshall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has taken the contest’s entanglement with politics to new heights. The European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the contest, banned Russia from competing immediately after its invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian victory at last year’s Eurovision, awarded by a mix of jury and public votes, was widely seen as a show of solidarity with the besieged nation. “Get out of my way,” Kehinde sings. His mother, panicked, called him on the morning Russia started bombing Ukrainian cities and urged him to get out.

More recently, he has tried to wrap Ukraine into that narrative, falsely depicting it as a Nazi redoubt. Image Smoke rising above a fuel depot in the Russian village of Volna, near the bridge linking Crimea to Russia, last Wednesday. In Russia, various regional governors have cited security concerns in canceling Victory Day events. “No neo-Nazi scum will be able to mar the great Victory Day. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov said the march was canceled as a “precautionary measure” against possible attacks.

☆ ‘Panic’ and Shortages in Parts of Occupied Ukraine Amid Russian Evacuation Orders
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Marc Santora | Anna Lukinova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, Ukraine — People living in Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine described in recent days an atmosphere of confusion, defiance and scarcity, as the occupation authorities ordered tens of thousands of civilians to evacuate in the face of a looming Ukrainian offensive. The New York Times communicated with more than a dozen people in occupied towns and villages in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine, by phone and through secure messaging applications. They said gas stations were running dry, grocery store shelves were emptying and A.T.M.s were out of cash. “They discharge people from the hospitals and take away the equipment,” said Andriy, 38, a resident of occupied Kamianka-Dniprovska in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine. And people are afraid to ask since there are armed soldiers around.”Access to occupied areas is heavily restricted, and the accounts of residents could not be independently verified.

More recently, he has tried to wrap Ukraine into that narrative, falsely depicting it as a Nazi redoubt. Credit... ReutersUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, staked his nation’s own claim to the holiday, with an address on Monday drawing a parallel between World War II and the current war against Russian invaders. In Russia, various regional governors have cited security concerns in canceling Victory Day events. Igor Artamonov, the governor of the Lipetsk region, which is also near Ukraine, said his decision should not be misinterpreted. “No neo-Nazi scum will be able to mar the great Victory Day.

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