Dnipro River to return to banks soon: Official

MOSCOW/KYIV — The southern reach of the Dnipro River is likely to return to its banks by Friday following a vast flood unleashed by the breach of the Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region last week, a Russian-installed official said on Saturday.

The flood has inundated towns and villages below the dam, trapping residents and sweeping away houses on both sides of the Dnipro, a disaster that has seen both Russia and Ukraine trading accusations.

Vladimir Saldo, acting governor of the Kherson region, said the water level at Nova Kakhovka, the town adjacent to the dam on the downstream side, had now dropped by 3 meters from Tuesday's peak.

"The pumping of water and garbage collection from the streets have started," he said.

Late on Saturday, Saldo added that almost 7,000 people had now been evacuated from the flooded districts of Nova Kakhovka, including 323 children, while 77 people have been hospitalized.

He said preliminary calculations by the Russian hydroelectricity producer RusHydro indicated that Dnipro would return to its usual course below the now-destroyed Kakhovka power station by June 16.

The destruction of the dam was a fast-moving disaster that is swiftly evolving into a long-term environmental catastrophe affecting drinking water, food supplies and ecosystems reaching into the Black Sea, The Associated Press reported. Experts say the long-term consequences will be generational.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that the counteroffensive actions in his country were underway, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported.

"Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine," Zelensky said at a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kyiv.

Trudeau said he would provide C$500 million ($375 million) in fresh military assistance to Kyiv, and pledged Canada would be part of the multinational effort to train Ukraine's fighter pilots during an unannounced trip to Kyiv.

Zelensky said he is in daily contact with Ukraine's military commanders, including Valery Zaluzhny, chief commander of the armed forces of Ukraine. Zelensky refused to give more details about the counteroffensive operation.

Putin said on Friday that Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive but has failed to accomplish its goals.

"First, it can be stated with absolute certainty that this offensive has begun. The use of strategic reserves of the Ukrainian forces proves it. Second, in no areas of combat the Ukrainian troops have achieved their tasks. This is an absolutely obvious thing," Putin told reporters in Russia's Sochi.

There were "significant losses" of Ukrainian troops in the previous five days of "very intense fighting", but Kyiv still preserves the offensive potential, Putin was quoted as saying in a Kremlin news release.

Agencies - Xinhua