Ukrainian forces claim to have retaken two villages in the Donetsk region as a days-old counteroffensive to push Russian forces out of the country gathers steam.
Ukrainian troops said they captured Neskuchne and Blahodatne on June 10 and 11 respectively, posting photos on social media from the center of the villages, a claim RFE/RL could not confirm.
Military bloggers said Ukrainian forces are now attacking the next two villages to the south, Makarivka and Urozhayne, along a road that eventually leads to the outskirts of Mariupol, located 130 kilometers away.
However, Ukrainian forces moving in that direction have yet to reach the heavily fortified Russian lines, which are located about 10 kilometers south of the current fighting, experts noted.
Russia, for its part, has claimed that it has repelled Ukrainian attacks, recently posting photos of destroyed armored vehicles NATO had given to Ukraine.
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On June 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged that the long-expected counteroffensive had begun.
"Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine, but I will not say in detail what stage they are at," Zelenskiy said.
Military experts have said Ukraine’s current counteroffensive will be much tougher than the one undertaken last year as Russia has had months to build extensive defensive fortifications.
There have been reports of heavy casualties on both sides since the counteroffensive began.
Many analysts have speculated that Ukraine will seek to move southeast toward Mariupol, an industrial city on the the Sea of Azov, in order to cut off and encircle Russian forces to the west.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is taking place in several directions along the 1,000 kilometer front.
The Ukrainian military reported heavy fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in their June 11 update. Zelenskiy said there was also heavy fighting on the southern fronts.
Dam Burst
The counteroffensive has been complicated by the bursting on June 6 of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of mining the dam and deliberately causing its destruction to flood Kherson region in the south and slow down its counteroffensive.
"The explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was apparently carried out with the intention of preventing the Ukrainian Defense Forces from launching an offensive in the Kherson sector," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said in a Telegram post on June 11.
Russia, which gained control of the dam shortly after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has steadfastly rejected the accusations.
Ukraine retook the city of Kherson on the west bank of the Dnieper River last year and had recently been conducting reconnaissance missions on the east bank controlled by Russia.
Malyar added that the destruction of the dam was also intended to allow Russian reserves in the region to be deployed to reinforce the areas of Zaporizhzhya and Bakhmut, the Donetsk city that had been the epicenter of the war for most of 2023.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine Goes On The Offensive, Trying To Turn The Tide Of Battle -- Once And For AllA Ukrainian military spokesman said on June 10 that Ukrainian forces had advanced more than a kilometer at a number of points along the front line near Bakhmut.
Although Russia's private Wagner mercenary group gained control of most of Bakhmut last month, Kyiv denies that the city is completely held by Russian forces and said fighting is ongoing.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War has said that the Ukrainian armed forces appear to have also made some gains in their offensive in the Zaporizhzhya region in the south.
The Russian military has said it successfully repelled attacks in both areas. The Russian Defense Ministry has released video footage in recent days showing what it said were numerous strikes on Ukrainian armored vehicles and tanks, including German Leopard 2 tanks and U.S. Bradley fighting vehicles.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu awarded medals on June 11 to soldiers it said had destroyed the foreign weaponry donated to Kyiv.
A UN official warned on June 10 of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the dam breach and resulting flooding.
UN Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths told AP that an “extraordinary” 700,000 people are in need of drinking water and said that the crisis will likely lead to lower grain exports, higher food prices around the world, and less to eat for millions in need. "The truth is this is only the beginning of seeing the consequences of this act," Griffiths said.
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Thousands Of Fish Dead In Kakhovka Reservoir As Ukraine Launches 'Ecocide' Probe Over Dam
On June 11, the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence assessment that the destruction of the dam "has almost certainly severely disrupted" the primary source of fresh water to Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
Water at the dam's reservoir had likely dropped below the inlet that feeds water to the canal delivering water to the peninsula, according to the assessment. Water is expected to stop flowing in the canal as a result, reducing the availability of fresh water in the south of the Kherson region and in northern Crimea..
The British Defense Ministry said that it expected the Russian authorities to meet civilians' water needs by using reservoirs, water rationing, drilling new wells, and bottled water.
It said that communities on both sides of the Dnieper face a sanitation crisis, limited access to safe water, and an increased risk of water-borne diseases.
Rescue efforts continued on June 11, with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry saying that 35 people, including seven children, remain unaccounted for in the Kherson region. Five people in Kherson and one person in the region of Mykolayiv have died as a result of the floods.
The Ukrainian authorities said that 32 towns and villages on the west bank of the Dnieper controlled by Ukrainian forces are still under water.
Evacuation efforts were also reported on the eastern bank of the river, which is more vulnerable to flooding.
Each side has accused the other of shelling civilians during the rescue efforts.