June 8, 2023 Russia-Ukraine war news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Zelensky speaks during his nightly address on Thursday, June 8.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said all levels of government and local authorities have been working nonstop to save as many people as they can from flooded areas following Ukraine’s catastrophic dam collapse.

He also thanked international organizations “who are present on our free territory and provide specific assistance,” though he expressed concern that none of those groups have accessed Russian-occupied areas of the disaster zone. 

The effort so far: At least 2,339 people, including 120 children, have been evacuated from flooded areas following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a Telegram post Thursday.

The ministry said at least 563 people — including 28 children — were rescued from the flooding and that nine evacuation centers have been set up.

On the western bank of the Dnipro River, at least 3,426 houses are completely flooded, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson region military administration.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins interviews British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The looming US presidential election has raised the possibility of a new administration that is less enthusiastic in supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia.

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, has refused to say whether he believes Ukraine should win the war against Russia. His main challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has hedged on the conflict, describing Russia’s unprovoked invasion as a “territorial” dispute.

Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday about Trump’s comments, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak highlighted “strong support” in the US for funding Ukraine, adding that his meetings with congressional leaders in both parties this week indicated a willingness to support the country’s ongoing efforts to repel Russia’s assault.

That’s a sentiment US President Joe Biden, who is gearing up for an eventual general election contest against Trump, DeSantis or another GOP candidate, echoed in his comments at a joint news conference with Sunak Thursday.

“I ask people to picture what would happen if we were not supporting Ukraine. Do we think Russia would stop in Kyiv? Do you think that is all there would be happening? I think not, and I think the vast majority of my colleagues — even the critics — think that would not be the case, as well,” he said, voicing confidence that the US will not run out of political will to aid Kyiv.

Read more from Sunak’s interview with CNN here.

A top US national security official sharply criticized Moscow over Ukraine’s claim that Russian forces are shelling Ukrainian-held parts of the Kherson region as rescue workers try to evacuate civilians from flood zones. 

“This is a life and death situation here, and it’s a situation caused by this devastating flood that we want to make sure we get humanitarian assistance in there,” he added.

Kirby pointed to humanitarian efforts from USAID to assist in the rescue and evacuation of civilians following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam earlier this week, noting agencies were working with humanitarian partners on the ground to provide transportation, water purification equipment and rescue capabilities in the region.

“We have been at this really since just a couple of hours after the breach, and we’re going to stay committed to that,” he said. “We’ve got good eyes on and good partners on the ground there, and so we’re gonna keep doing that — there’ll be more support coming from the United States as needed.”

Key context: Both Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of shelling during the evacuations. Kyiv and Moscow also accuse each other of causing the breach in the first place, although it is unclear whether the dam was deliberately attacked, or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he spoke to his US counterpart Antony Blinken on Thursday about the Nova Kakhovka dam disaster.

The collapse in southern Ukraine is one of the biggest industrial and ecological disasters in Europe for decades.

“The U.S. is helping us mitigate the consequences of the Russia-caused Kakhovka disaster,” Kuleba tweeted.

Ukraine has blamed and condemned Russia for the dam’s collapse, and the subsequent shelling of the southern Ukrainian-held city of Kherson during mass evacuations due to the breach.

It’s still impossible to say whether the dam collapsed because it was deliberately targeted — or if the breach could have been caused by structural failure. Russia, for its part, has pointed the finger of blame at Ukraine.

Kuleba did not share further details about how the US was helping in the flood response.

The foreign minister said he and Blinken also discussed US military aid and hopeful outcomes for this summer’s NATO summit.

Russian defense systems have shot down targets over the Belgorod region, the governor there said.

Belgorod is near the border with Ukraine.

Some background: 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.

More recently, Ukrainian forces carried out heavy shelling of the region overnight Wednesday, Gladkov had said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region was not a natural disaster or evidence of climate change.

Instead, he said:

The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine is one of the biggest industrial and ecological disasters in Europe for decades. The catastrophe has destroyed entire villages, flooded farmland, deprived tens of thousands of people of power and clean water, and caused massive environmental damage.

In the Russian-occupied part of the territory, where about a dozen settlements are flooded, “no evacuation is carried out at all,” Zelensky claimed in a video address to representatives of the world environmental protection community. People have been stuck on rooftops, “trapped in water” for days without drinking water, food, or medical care, he said.

“We do not know the number of dead and injured yet,” he added. “In more than 30 settlements, life is ruined. For hundreds of thousands of people in many towns and villages, access to drinking water has been greatly impeded.”

Some background: Both Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of shelling during the evacuations. Also, Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of causing the breach in the first place, although it is unclear whether the dam was deliberately attacked, or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is seen on March 29.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine is still able to pump water from the nearby Kakhovka reservoir despite this week’s dam collapse, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday.

Water levels have dropped below the point where it was previously estimated pumps would not be able to operate, but the system has not been disrupted, explained Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. That’s bought the plant more time before it has to switch to alternative cooling sources.

Since the dam collapse, the reservoir’s water level has dropped by just over 4 meters (around 13 feet), and it’s losing between 4 and 7 centimeters each hour, Grossi said. A power plant review has found that it will likely be able to keep pumping water from the reservoir even if it drops by another meter or two — and possibly lower.

Once it can no longer use the reservoir to cool its six reactors, Grossi said alternative water supplies — which include a large cooling pond next to the plant, several smaller ponds and onsite wells — can provide required cooling water for several months.

Grossi said IAEA teams on the ground have requested access to areas surrounding the plant and reservoir so they can learn more.

About the plant: The Zaporizhzhia plant, with its six reactors, is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. Ukraine relies heavily on nuclear power, with about half of its electricity coming from reactors at four plants around the country.

The plant is held by Russian forces but operated mostly by a Ukrainian workforce. Fighting around the plant and the perilous workplace environment for its staff have made Zaporizhzhia NPP a subject of constant concern for the IAEA and other international observers.

Flooded residential buildings are seen on Thursday, June 8, in Kherson, Ukraine.

Rescuers are facing resource challenges while carrying out evacuations in Ukraine-controlled Kherson due to the scale of the flooding caused by the collapse of Nova Kakhovka dam earlier this week, an emergency services officer told CNN.

There is a shortage of resources as Russians continue shelling the western bank of the Dnipro river, said Maksym Trykur, an officer at Ukraine’s State Special Transport Service.

The catastrophe is “unprecedented and the challenge is it’s impossible to accumulate all the resources in such a short time,” Trykur told CNN.

Earlier Thursday, local officials said at least nine people had been injured by shelling as civilians evacuate Kherson city.

Volunteers evacuate local residents from a flooded area in Kherson, Ukraine on Thursday, June 8.

Here other key developments related to the dam collapse and Russia’s war in Ukraine:

The destroyed Antonivskyi bridge is seen over the flooded Dnipro river on Thursday, June 8, after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached.

The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine is one of the biggest industrial and ecological disasters in Europe for decades. The catastrophe has destroyed entire villages, flooded farmland, deprived tens of thousands of people of power and clean water, and caused massive environmental damage.

Here are the three main theories on what caused the dam collapse – and what experts and officials say about each:

Did Russia do it? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his government and the country’s military were quick to blame Moscow for the disaster. They said Russian forces blew up the reservoir from inside, with Zelensky quoting a report by Ukrainian intelligence last year that claimed occupying troops had mined the dam.

The Ukrainians point out that the facility has been under Russian control for the past year, making it easy for Russian forces to plant explosives. Social media posts indicate that people in the area heard the sound of explosions around the time the dam was thought to have been damaged.

The wider timing of the incident is not insignificant. While Moscow and Kyiv have previously accused each other of plotting to blow up the Soviet-era dam, this collapse coincided with Ukrainian forces gearing up for their widely expected summer counter-offensive.

Fooded residential buildings are seen in Kherson, Ukraine on Thursday, June 8,

Could it have been a missile attack by Ukraine? Russia has denied any involvement in the disaster and in turn accused Ukraine of destroying the dam, without providing evidence.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed the attack was “planned and carried out by order received from Kyiv, from the Kyiv regime,” aiming to “deprive Crimea of water” and to distract from the battlefield. Ukraine has denied the accusations.

The reservoir supplies water to large swaths of southern Ukraine, including to the Crimean peninsula which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Crimea has experienced water issues ever since Ukraine cut its supply shortly after the annexation. Russian forces captured the North Crimea Canal – which is fed by the Kakhovka reservoir – and began restoring the water supply in the first days of their invasion in 2022..

Structural failure? The Nova Kakhovka dam — the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume – is also the furthest downstream of a cascade of six Soviet-era dams on the Dnipro River. The fact that the facility has been operating for many decades has prompted speculation around a possible technical failure.

“This is a very common type of dam all around the world. They’ve been built for hundreds of years and if they were designed and built well and are maintained adequately, then the chance of a failure is very, very low. It would be extremely unusual for this type of dam to fail with no warning,” Craig Goff, the technical director and lead of the Dams and Reservoirs team at HR Wallingford, a civil engineering and environmental hydraulics consultancy, said.

However, it is unclear how well the dam has been maintained under Russian occupation. The surrounding area has been one of the most heavily contested regions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the dam has sustained some prior damage.

Read more.

CNN’s Sam Kiley, Natasha Bertrand, Alex Marquardt, Jim Sciutto and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting.

A photo shared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine shows the aftermath of a strike in the Cherkasy region.

The city of Uman in Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region was hit by a missile attack on Thursday, according to Ihor Taburets, head of the Cherkasy region’s military administration.

“We have two hits: on an industrial facility and a car wash. In the second case, a fire broke out as a result of the hit,” he said.

Eight people were injured, two seriously, Taburets said, citing preliminary information.

Warehouse workers repair captured Russia armor and repurpose it for use on the battlefield.

The loud and repetitive metallic thudding echoes through the workshop as a worker hammers away at a large engine. He pauses, tilts his head for a quick check at what he’s done and then gets back at it.  

He’s one of many — whose names CNN has agreed not to disclose to protect their identity — working inside a warehouse in a secret location in Ukraine. They are ordinary civilians, but their work is vital for Ukraine’s war effort. They repair damaged vehicles, such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, so that Kyiv can send them back to the front lines. 

One such vehicle stands out: Its tracks are a mangled mess of metal, twisted after it struck a land mine. It was Russian, and its body is riddled with “Z” signs all over, the mark of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. 

“This is a transport vehicle that we are going to modify into a medical evacuation machine,” says Bohdan Ostapchuk, project coordinator at the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, who is responsible for this warehouse. 

It’s one of a dozen or so armored vehicles — including armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and even a tank — being repaired at the shop. But patching these up is not the only thing the Ukrainians are doing: They are also modifying and improving them. 

“We are trying to make them safer and more comfortable for use on the battlefield,” he says. 

A captured Russian armored personnel carrier with the Z mark of Moscow's invasion. Ukrainian repairmen at the warehouse want to adapt this vehicle to transport wounded soldiers.

Despite recent Western donations, Russian-made equipment — including hardware salvaged or captured from Moscow’s armies — has been used by the Ukrainian military since the early days of Russia’s invasion.

They coordinate with the military to find the missing pieces and build whatever else they cannot find, but it’s a process that takes time and consumes resources. They eventually find a way, and Ostapchuk said they have been able to repair more than 30 types of vehicles, including some Western-made ones. “I can’t go into detail,” he quickly adds. 

It’s one of the reasons why this workshop is so vital and their work so intricate — and secretive.

A repaired Russian T-72 tank ready to be sent out to the front lines.

As Ukraine prepares to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive, Ostapchuk says that —despite the dozen or so vehicles currently being worked on — the warehouse is unusually empty, compared to other times. Here too, they’ve been feeling the calm before the storm. 

The next armored vehicle to go to the front lines, a T-72 B3M main battle tank, stands at the entrance of the warehouse, looking almost brand-new. 

In a moment’s notice, a Ukrainian technician fires up the tank’s engine, filling the warehouse air with fumes. The workshop grinds to a halt as the powerful noise turns heads toward the tank. 

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 8.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that he believes the US will have the funding necessary to support Ukraine against Russia for as long as it takes.

Biden, responding to a reporter’s question, said he’s confident in the continued funding despite what you hear from “some voices today on Capitol Hill,” referring to US lawmakers who have expressed skepticism about the country’s extent and duration of aid to Kyiv.

US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said additional funding for Ukraine would face long odds in the Republican-controlled House, though Senate Republicans have vowed to continue on with the aid.

UK’s prime minister promises to share the burden: Biden’s comments came during his joint news conference Thursday with the visiting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who chimed in following the president’s remarks.

“It’s actually entirely reasonable for the American people to hear what I say, and hopefully acknowledge the thanks that we have for their support of the situation in Ukraine, but also ask if everyone is doing their bit,” Sunak said.

Earlier, the prime minister had called US support for Kyiv the “decisive contribution” of the conflict.

Sunak said, for its part, the UK is proud to be the second-largest contributor to Ukraine’s defense behind the US.

“We’re lucky to have America’s investment in European security, but we need to share the burden alongside you, which is why defense spending in the UK has been above the 2% NATO benchmark,” he continued, referring to the minimum percentage of GDP NATO members have been asked to contribute toward the alliance’s collective defense. The US has long carried an outsized burden in that area.

“It’s on an increasing trajectory, and we would encourage other countries to follow the lead that the US and the UK set, because our security is collective,” Sunak said.

CNN’s Lauren Fox and Nicky Robertson contributed to this report.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden hold a joint news conference at White House in Washington, DC, on June 8.

US President Joe Biden and his British counterpart, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, touted their “unwavering support” for Ukraine and shared condemnation of Moscow’s “brutal aggression” as they met in Washington, DC, Thursday.

“The UK and the United States, together with more than 50 partners, have committed historic levels of security assistance to Ukraine. I want to thank the prime minister for his strong, strong leadership, contributing significant amounts of security assistance and training to Ukrainian troops so they can effectively use the equipment and ammunition we’ve collectively provided them,” Biden said during a joint news conference at the White House.

Sunak said the United Kingdom was proud of its contributions to the Ukrainian war effort, including tanks, long-range weapons and training for Kyiv’s soldiers. But, he continued, it has been US leadership and resources that have provided the “decisive contribution” allowing Ukraine to hold off Russia’s wide-reaching assault.

Sunak said the pair would continue to “collaborate to protect our national security.”

Ukrainian soldiers fire at a Russian air target on the frontline near Bakhmut on June 5.

Troops are making progress and continue to advance in the Bakhmut area in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said Thursday.

“The defensive operation continues, the enemy is trying to stop our forces but is getting beaten,“ the commander of Ukrainian Land Forces Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a Telegram post. He shared a video, purportedly showing soldiers of the 77th Air Assault Brigade destroying a Russian tank. 

“Heavy fighting continues for every square meter” in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka directions,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces said in its daily update. It said 26 combat engagements took place in the frontline areas in the past day.

Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade claimed on Telegram it had pushed Russian forces back “from 1.8 km along the front line and 1.2 km inland” over the last day around Bakhmut.

The 5th Separate Mechanized Brigade posted an update, claiming “the occupiers are losing positions in the area of ‘gardens’ in Bakhmut.”

CNN cannot independently verify the claims.

Several United Nations agencies are working to provide access to clean water and food for Kherson residents affected by the Nova Kakhovka Dam collapse, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

Here’s what steps are being taken, according to a UN OCHA statement:

Ukrainian security forces help to unload local residents from a boat during an evacuation from a flooded area in Kherson on June 8.

Rescuers are facing resource challenges while carrying out evacuations in Ukraine-controlled Kherson due to the scale of the flooding caused by the dam collapse, an emergency services officer told CNN.

There is a shortage of resources as Russians continue shelling the western bank of the Dnipro river, said Maksym Trykur, an officer at Ukraine’s State Special Transport Service.

The catastrophe is “unprecedented and the challenge is it’s impossible to accumulate all the resources in such a short time,” Trykur told CNN.

The State Special Transport Service has been working along with the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in evacuating civilians. 

“People there are not in a position to stay. The place is unlivable, the houses are flooded, lots of cattle have been killed, the public transport doesn’t work obviously,” he added.

Trykur said most territories are flooded with 5 meters of water, or about 16 feet, and that “it’s impossible to predict the time frame that will allow people to come back to their homes.”

He said his colleagues on the ground have not encountered any humanitarian aid offices or assistance provided by any international organizations, such as the United Nations or the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The collapse of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam has displaced landmines in the region, the head of the Red Cross Weapons Contamination Program told CNN on Thursday.

The marking and mapping systems used by charities and NGOs to detect and locate landmines are no longer accurate, as so many landmines have moved in the water. “This is a big problem,” Tollefsen said. 

Mike Newton, head of The HALO Trust’s Ukraine demining program, told CNN that his organization will have to re-locate and re-map landmines in the area affected by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam. 

“Before the dam even burst its banks there was (a) significant humanitarian problem that we were dealing with. So now that the dam has gone, what we’re looking at now is just another humanitarian catastrophe, just an ecological disaster, to throw into this bigger catastrophe that has been enveloping Ukraine for the past year and a half almost,” Newton told CNN.

Soil is also being picked up by moving water and ending up on top of landmines, Newton said, sometimes detonating them, but also sometimes burying them. In these cases, teams have to be sent to remap and clear the buried mines. 

More than 5000 landmines were detected by the HALO Trust’s demining team in Mykolaiv, Newton said, nearly 500 of which were on riverbanks in the region. 

“Areas that previously didn’t have any risks to the population in terms of weapon contamination, [are] now very, very dangerous,” Tollefsen told CNN. 

The Red Cross is “very concerned,” he added. Ukrainians “have maybe lost their loved ones, their families have been disrupted, they can’t get access to drinking water, to food, to medicine. Now they have the risk of landmines being in the area that could kill them or injure them,” he said.

Those attempting to offer assistance to civilians are also facing increased danger in the region, Tollefsen said. “We really, really call for caution.”

“You cannot rebuild a country on mine foundations,” Newton said. “Mines have got to be front and center in everyone’s minds when you’re talking about recovery in Ukraine when you talk about reconstruction. And of course, now with this dam, it’s just another thing that Ukrainians have got to deal with.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in New Delhi on April 28.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has called for the expedited delivery of military hardware to the front lines in Ukraine, in a video posted on Thursday by the ministry’s press service.

“The enemy tried to advance today. In two hours of the first battle alone, Russian troops destroyed 30 tanks and 10 IFVs. In two hours of combat, since morning. So this equipment is needed, let’s hurry up,” Shoigu said in reference to his earlier claim that Russian forces have repelled four overnight attacks in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

Shoigu made the request during a visit to troops of the Western Military District of Russia, where he inspected the preparation of equipment and weapons for shipment at the arsenals and storage bases, according to the statement posted by the ministry.

“Shoigu drew particular attention to the quality preparation and timely dispatch of ammunition and missiles to units involved in the special military operation and also undergoing combat readiness as part of combat training,” the statement added.

At least nine people have been injured by shelling as civilians evacuate Kherson city Thursday, local Ukrainian officials said.

Two employees of the State Emergency Service, a police officer, a doctor and a volunteer from Germany are among those wounded, said Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson’s regional military administration.

“One man is in intensive care with serious injuries, and doctors are fighting for his life,” Prokudin said. 

Remember: Rescuers are trying to evacuate thousands of people in the flood zone of the Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka dam and hydro-electric power plant in the southern Kherson region, which collapsed Tuesday, sending torrents of water gushing down the Dnipro River. Kherson city is under Ukrainian control.

Both Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of shelling during the evacuations.

Kyiv and Moscow also accuse each other of causing the breach in the first place, although it is unclear whether the dam was deliberately attacked, or whether the collapse was the result of structural failure.

More from officials: Prokudin, the Ukrainian regional leader in Kherson, said Thursday water has flooded 27 settlements and damaged well over 3,000 houses, most of them in the city.

“Despite Russia’s cynical attacks, police, rescuers and volunteers continue to evacuate people from the dangerous areas. They have managed to evacuate 2,198 people, including 120 children and 38 people with limited mobility,” he added.

Kremlin officials, meanwhile, said Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call Thursday with the Moscow-installed leader of Kherson’s occupied areas, according to the state news agency TASS.

Putin called for Russian emergency services to provide all necessary assistance to people in impacted areas, a Kremlin spokesperson said.

CNN’s Katharina Krebs and Sarah Dean contributed to this report.