June 7, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian troops witnessed Russian soldiers being swept up in floodwaters and fleeing the east bank of the Dnipro River after the collapse of the Nova Khakovka dam, an officer in Ukraine's armed forces said. Many Russian troops were killed or wounded in the chaos, according to the officer. 

Capt. Andrei Pidlisnyi said when the dam collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday morning “no one on the Russian side was able to get away. All the regiments the Russians had on that side were flooded.” 

Pidlisnyi told CNN he believed the Russians had deliberately attacked the dam to disrupt Ukrainian forces’ plans for an upcoming offensive. 

Pidlisnyi explained that the lay of the land around the river meant that Russia’s military — located on the east bank — suffered serious impacts in the dam’s breach. His unit was able to watch the events unfold through the use of drones and troops on the scene.

The Russian units in harm’s way may not have been warned, possibly to maintain the element of surprise, Pidlisnyi said.

Pointing blame: Ukraine’s government has echoed Pidlisnyi’s contention that Russia deliberately blew up the dam, while the Kremlin has said it was Kyiv’s forces that carried out an attack. 

In fact, evidence to conclusively support either side’s claim is yet to emerge, while analysis of videos of the dam, and its subsequent breach, and in particular examination of satellite imagery, suggest the collapse could have been the result of structural failure since the Russians occupied the dam in March last year.

More than 24 hours after the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the search and rescue operation in Kherson remains in full swing.  

Authorities and volunteers continue to use wooden boats and rubber dinghies to evacuate people — and a large number of cats and dogs — who were left stranded as water levels have continued to rise overnight.

They have been working relentlessly since the city started to flood and now, exhausted and overwhelmed, are very much a facet of this tragedy.

The people coming off the boats are visibly shaken by the ordeal — some breaking down into tears as they finally reach dry land. The animals also seem in distress. The constant howling and meowing echo through the scene as operations continue.

Some areas that were accessible on foot on Tuesday are now completely underwater — in some locations, the water is up to four meters (13 feet) deep. There is, however, a sense from authorities that water levels, although still rising, are now doing so at a slower pace.

As the humanitarian crisis continues to unravel before our eyes, the war is ever-present and Kherson remains very much a frontline city. 

Outgoing and incoming artillery — rocket, mortars, etc — could be heard every hour throughout the day on Tuesday and then through the night and into Wednesday morning.

Shelling seems to have calmed down in the past few hours, but sporadic fire is still heard in the distance.

The Ukrainian government nonetheless promising the rumbles of war will not impact search and rescue operations.

 No respite, no truce even amidst the tragedy.

At least seven people are missing following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam on Tuesday, the occupied town's Moscow-appointed mayor told Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday. 

Ukraine, meanwhile, says it has evacuated more than 1,500 people from Ukrainian-controlled flooded Kherson areas. Authorities added in a post on Telegram that "20 settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River and more than 1,900 houses were flooded in Kherson region."

Below are the latest developments:

Ukrainian police say they have received three calls regarding missing persons in the Kherson region flooding as a result of the burst dam upstream.

Writing on Telegram the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Leonid Tymchenko said, “As of this morning, we have received three calls to the 102 line regarding people who went missing under special circumstances in the Kherson region.”

On the Russian-controlled side of the river, the Russian-installed mayor of Kherson said that he is aware of at least seven people being missing. 

Some context: There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

Between 35 and 80 settlements were expected to be flooded due to the breach, Zelensky said, and aid efforts are ongoing to get drinking water, hygiene kits and other supplies to affected neighborhoods.

In the low lying districts of Kherson, a CNN team on the ground saw residents evacuated from their homes carrying their possessions and pets in their arms as rising floodwaters penetrated one city block in less than an hour.

As the area is on the front lines of the conflict, the rising water brings with it an added danger of mine and explosive ordnance contamination.

Both Moscow and Kyiv noted the humanitarian and environmental consequences, while blaming each other for the dam’s collapse. CNN has not been able to establish either claim.

Fighting around Bakhmut “remains the epicenter of hostilities,” Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Wednesday. 

Speaking on Telegram, Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces have made gains ranging from 200 meters (656 feet) in some areas to 1,100 meters (3,609 feet) in others, but did not say where exactly. 

Maliar also noted that Wagner fighters had largely withdrawn, noting they “remain in some places in the rear” and the large majority of the fighting is now being conducted by regular units of the Russian Federation, including airborne units.

The head of the Wagner military group in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused Russia of sabotaging his withdrawal from Bakhmut last week, claiming exit routes were mined.

Some context: Bakhmut sits toward the northeast of the Donetsk region, about 13 miles from the Luhansk region, and had long been a target for Russian forces. Since last summer the city has been a stone’s throw from the front lines.

Last month, Russian forces said they had finally captured the embattled eastern city. It followed a months-long slog where Russian soldiers had to grind for every inch of territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam has left “hundreds of thousands of people without normal access to drinking water.”

In a statement posted on Telegram, Zelensky said that prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, either side of the banks of the Dnipro River were home to “at least 100,000 people" but since the war that number has fallen to "tens of thousands."

The collapse of the dam has now led to more evacuations from the Russian-occupied Kherson region.

In a statement on Telegram, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, said more than 1,400 people were also evacuated across the Kherson region, while more than 1,800 houses on the west bank of the Dnipro River have flooded.

This comes after Russian-installed mayor of Kherson claimed that seven people are currently missing, while Ukrainian troops say they witnessed Russian soldiers being swept up in floodwaters.

Meanwhile, 300 zoo animals died Tuesday after the collapse of the dam, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry .

Both Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for the breach of the dam. CNN has not been able to verify these claims.

Ukrainian forces carried out heavy shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region overnight, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram Wednesday.

According to Gladkov, the shelling targeted several areas in the border region of Belgorod, including Shebekino. 

“460 units of various ammunition were fired in the Shebekino urban district, 26 drops of explosive devices from UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were recorded,” Gladkov wrote, adding that in the town of Shebekino strikes were carried out mainly on residential areas.

Galdkov added that the villages of Zhuravlyovka, Tsapovka, Stary, and Kozinka also came under fire, with no reported injuries.

Some context: Russia has seen the effects of its war on Ukraine increasingly reverberate back onto its own territory in recent months.

Belgorod has seen a series of drone attacks. Last week, a “massive” shelling attack injured four people in the region. Eight apartment buildings, four homes, a school and two administrative buildings were damaged during the shelling in Shebekino, a village in the border region of Belgorod.

A drone attack was also launched on Russia’s Bryansk region last Wednesday, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. About 10 drones tried to attack the Klimovsky district and were shot down or intercepted, RIA reported citing emergency services.

Some 1,548 people had been evacuated from Ukrainian controlled flooded areas of the Kherson region by 11:30 a.m. local time, the State Emergency Services and National Police of Ukraine confirmed Wednesday.

Thousands have been evacuated and there are fears of an ecological catastrophe after the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant collapsed on Tuesday.

Authorities added in a post on Telegram that "20 settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River and more than 1,900 houses were flooded in Kherson region."

The operation to save people has involved 1,700 workers, 300 pieces of equipment and 33 water vessels.

One of the pieces of equipment used in the rescue was the "Bohun" all terrain vehicle that can move freely through water and mud.

Some context: Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the dam’s destruction, without providing concrete proof that the other is culpable. It is not yet clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, said Russia bears “criminal liability” and Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the dam incident as a case of “ecocide.”

Concerns are now turning to the dangers to wildlife, farmlands, settlements and water supplies from the floodwaters and possible contamination from industrial chemicals and oil leaked from the hydropower plant into the Dnipro River.

The Russian-installed mayor of the occupied Kherson region has claimed Ukrainians have “harmed themselves" with the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant along the Dnipro River.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for the breach of the dam.

CNN has not been able to establish what caused the dam to collapse and it remains unclear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or if the collapse was the result of structural failure.

Speaking on Russian state TV, Vladimir Saldo claimed the incident will benefit the Russian military.

He went to say this was contrary to the "expectation that blowing up the dam will give some strategic or even operational advantage to the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine)."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claims that Russia bears “criminal liability” and that Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the dam incident as a case of “ecocide.”

Saldo went on to claim that according to “preliminary forecasts” between 22,000 and 40,000 people were in the disaster zone. He added that the seven people who may be missing could be on the islands further down stream but will only be able to confirm that once they have access to these areas.