From Drone Strikes to Ground Incursions, War Comes to RUssia; UKRaine has Evidence RU Blew Kakhovka Dam by Remote Control; Zelenskyy: Blowing Up of Dam Does Not Affect Our Ability to Liberate Territories; Kyiv’s Troops Advance Around Bakhmut, LIVE UPDATES and MORE
WSJ: From Drone Strikes to Ground Incursions, War Comes to Russia:
Viktor Bondarenko, a Russian art collector, was jolted awake by the sound of explosions over his upscale Moscow suburb on May 30. Russian air defenses were blasting away at Ukrainian drones.
Bondarenko’s wife wanted to shelter in the cellar, he said in an Instagram post, but he “didn’t want to be buried in the basement should something strike.” One good thing, he said: “The kids are in Milan.”
Drone strikes inside Russia are now a near-daily occurrence. Those in Moscow have had limited military impact. But, along with hits on refineries and airfields, ground incursions in the southern Belgorod region and assassinations of several prominent Russian war supporters, the attacks have caused a psychological shift.
Fifteen months after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, expecting a quick victory, the war has come to the heart of Russia. The country’s elites, who believed themselves safe as the invasion campaign rumbled far away, are rattled.
As Moscow struggles with how to respond, each new attack is a blow to the official narrative of Russian supremacy and a challenge to Putin’s image of invincibility.
“The society is starting to worry: Will the war expand inside Russia?” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “There is a slow internal erosion under way, in attitudes towards the war and towards the elites.”
Recent fighting in Belgorod has turned the midsize Russian city of Shebekino, once home to 40,000 people, into a ghost town. About 500 residents remain. Looters have broken into hospitals, stores and government buildings. Russia’s military has proved unable to defend the border.
Ukrainian attacks have caused a patriotic backlash among some ordinary Russians, but on balance such a destabilization benefits Kyiv, Stanovaya said. “It damages the regime, and above all it damages the system of power.”
Few Western officials doubt that Ukraine is carrying out the strikes inside Russia. But, maintaining politically expedient ambiguity, Kyiv has stopped just short of acknowledging responsibility for the attacks. It describes the cross-border operations as a spontaneous uprising by Russians fed up with the Putin regime. —>READ MORE HERE
Ukraine has evidence Russia blew Kakhovka dam by remote control, intelligence says:
Ukraine has evidence Russia blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) and its dam by remote control, causing a massive flooding catastrophe, Ukrainian Defense Intelligence officer and spokesperson Andriy Yusov said on Ukrainian television on June 6.
Russian troops were previously observed transporting explosives and equipment for the planned controlled explosion, Yusov said.
“There will be accurate estimates of the power of explosions, how much explosives were needed for this — all this will be calculated,” Yusov said.
“But the facts of the movement of explosives and the equipment by the Russians for carrying out a controlled remote explosion, certainly such facts and evidence exist. They were repeatedly made public by Ukraine.”
Kakhovka HPP — what is known about the explosion
During the night of June 6, Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka HPP dam, triggering widespread flooding and posing a grave threat to downstream cities and towns along the Dnipro River, Ukrainian authorities say. The floodwaters were expected to peak around noon Kyiv time (GMT+3), prompting the Kherson Oblast Military Administration to declare an urgent evacuation.
The east bank of the region, which is controlled by the Russian forces, will also be badly affected, as it is low-lying.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council. —>READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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