June 18, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the toughest fighting is taking place on Ukraine’s southern front, and he praised Kyiv’s forces for holding off Russian assaults in the east.

Zelensky made the comments in his daily address Sunday, saying Ukrainian troops are “advancing, position by position, step by step” and “are moving forward.” 

The opening stages of Kyiv’s counteroffensive have been marked by probing attacks — seemingly testing the Russian lines of defense — and modest gains, but no apparent major breakthroughs. 

Russian troops “continue to focus their main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka directions,” the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Sunday, referring to a series of eastern Ukrainian frontline cities stretching from north to south. “Heavy fighting continues.”

Zelensky said that not a single US Patriot air defense system has been destroyed in Ukraine, and that nearly three dozen missiles and about 50 attack drones were destroyed over the past week. He also said the Ukrainian Air Force carried out more than 100 strikes on enemy positions over the past week.

The latest from Moscow: The Russian defense ministry said in its daily report Sunday that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine are most actively advancing in the (southern) Zaporizhzhia direction, with forces of up to 3 battalion groups, reinforced with tanks and armored combat vehicles.”

A Russia-backed official said earlier Sunday that Ukraine has retaken a village near Zaporizhzhia city. Moscow denies the report, saying troops repelled attacks there.

Russian forces also repelled eight Ukrainian army attacks in various settlements east and northeast of Donetsk city, the defense ministry claimed in its report.

Remember: CNN cannot independently verify either side’s reports on battlefield developments.

CNN’s Mariya Knight contributed to this report.

Oil pollution is seen in the Dnipro River in flooded Kherson on June 10, following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction.”

Homes and infrastructure have been destroyed by flooding, land has become unsuitable for agriculture and water supply has been disrupted in a number of regions, according to Ukraine’s government. Meanwhile, experts have warned that industrial chemicals and oil have leaked from the hydropower plant into the Dnipro River, mixing with the wartime debris — including landmines — that has also been swept up in the flood.

The latest consequences of that water contamination came Sunday, with the region of Odesa closing its beaches and the region of Mykolaiv warning residents not to drink water, due to its waterways being tainted in the flooding.

Ukrainian Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets, who has estimated the environmental damage of the collapse to be tens of millions of dollars, has said the pollution moving downstream has endangered wildlife species found nowhere else in the world, including the sandy blind mole-rat.

The flooding also killed hundreds of animals at the Nova Kakhovka zoo, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry.

Read more about the environmental damage here.

Remember: 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 shelling on the Kursk region in western Russia wounded two people and damaged buildings, including a sugar factory, regional Gov. Roman Starovoyt said Sunday.

The shelling targeted three settlements in the border district of Glushkovsky, the governor said, estimating that Ukraine launched more than two dozen strikes at various areas.

Two residents in the village of Glushkovo were wounded, Starovoyt said. In addition to the sugar factory, the strikes damaged several houses, stores and power lines. Parts of the targeted communities lost power, and repair crews are working to restore it, the governor added.

Russia’s military fired back at the Ukrainian military units that launched the assault, according to Starovoyt.

Attacks on Russian soil: Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is increasingly coming home to the Russian people, with more attacks coming across the border in recent weeks.

The assaults on places like Kursk and the neighboring Belgorod region have, according to Russian officials, included strikes by Ukraine’s military. But attacks have also been launched by Russian fighters aligned with Kyiv, who strike across the border in hopes of sowing confusion and anger in Moscow.

Often, Ukraine declines to claim responsibility for attacks that reach across the border into Russia.

CNN cannot independently verify battlefield reports.

The Russian government contradicted a report from its own installed leader in occupied southern Ukraine Sunday, refuting his claim that Kyiv’s forces took back a village near the Zaporizhzhia front.

“An attack on Piatykhatky was repulsed. Over a dozen tanks, armored vehicles and (Armed Forces of Ukraine) manpower destroyed,” a battalion press center wrote in a post on the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Telegram page.  

Earlier Sunday, a local Russian-installed leader said Ukrainian forces had claimed Piatykhatky, which is located south of Zaporizhzhia city.

The official, Vladimir Rogov, made the report in a Telegram post, where he implied Ukraine had suffered losses to take control of the village.

A Russian pro-Kremlin military blogger also reported on the situation there, saying Russian artillery units were firing on Ukrainian infantry entrenched in the village.

More on the recent fighting: The Russian defense ministry said in its daily report Sunday that “the Armed Forces of Ukraine are most actively advancing in the Zaporizhzhia direction, with forces of up to 3 battalion groups, reinforced with tanks and armored combat vehicles.” 

Russian forces also repelled eight Ukrainian army attacks in various settlements east and northeast of Donetsk city, the ministry claimed in its report.

CNN cannot independently verify claims on battlefield developments.

The opening stages of Kyiv’s counteroffensive have been marked by probing attacks — seemingly testing the Russian lines of defense — and modest gains, but no apparent major breakthroughs.

Residents carry bottled water in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine, on June 12.

Mykolaiv health authorities have urged residents to refrain from using water in the southern region for drinking, and warned not to swim or fish, after contaminants were discovered.

The warning, issued Sunday, comes after authorities in the Odesa region also closed beaches for health reasons.

The devastating Kakhovka dam collapse and subsequent flooding in southern Ukraine has turned the Dnipro River and Black Sea coastline into “a garbage dump and animal cemetery,” according to Ukrainian authorities.

Now cholera-like vibrio has been detected in open waters of the Mykolaiv region, the Regional Centre for Disease Control and Prevention posted on its official Facebook page Sunday. The discovery means the water could potentially cause acute intestinal infections, local authorities said.

The Disease Control Centre also warned of high ammonia levels.

In neighboring Odesa, authorities have closed off beaches because poor water quality poses a “genuine threat” to local residents.

Odesa’s sandy beaches and holiday resorts were once packed with Ukrainian and foreign visitors before the war hit. The beaches have been largely abandoned by swimmers in recent months, as mines from the war with Russia wash on to the shoreline. That situation has only worsened in the wake of the dam collapse.

More on the dam collapse: The Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine collapsed on June 6. CNN has not been able to verify if the dam’s destruction came as a result of a deliberate attack from one of the warring parties or from structural failure. Both Ukrainian and Russian officials blame an explosion from the opposing side for causing the breach.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing, China, on June 18.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for more than five hours Sunday, according to the US State Department.

Blinken travelled to Beijing for a high-stakes visit this weekend meant to steer tense relations between the United States and China back on course and cover topics including the war in Ukraine.

Blinken’s initial meeting with his fellow diplomat concluded after five and a half hours at 8 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET). He then moved to a working dinner, the State Department told reporters.

Officials from both governments have signaled low expectations for the visit, but Blinken vowed to raise “our very real concerns on a range of issues,” including Russia’s invasion.

Blinken is the first secretary of state to travel to China in five years and the most senior US official to make such a mission since President Joe Biden took office.

More background: While Beijing has sought to play the part of peacemaker between Moscow and Kyiv, China’s messaging has been met with significant skepticism by US officials and other Western leaders.

China has released a vaguely worded position paper on a “political settlement” to the conflict, but it has been criticized for not calling on Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory, as Kyiv and more than 100 governments around the world have done.

And Western officials raised concerns earlier this year that China could be considering providing Russia with lethal military assistance, an accusation denied by Beijing.

In April, senior US Treasury officials said they had not seen evidence China is providing extensive assistance to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but officials remain wary as the two countries forge closer ties.

Russian forces repelled eight Ukrainian army attacks in various settlements east and northeast of Donetsk city, the Russian defense ministry claimed in its daily report Sunday.

CNN cannot independently verify battlefield reports.

Ukraine’s troops are locked in heavy fighting along the southern and eastern front lines, its military said Saturday.

The opening stages of Kyiv’s counteroffensive have been marked by probing attacks — seemingly testing the Russian lines of defense — and modest gains, but no apparent major breakthroughs.

The Ukrainian Air Force says it hit a Russian ammunition dump in Kherson early Sunday, a claim that has been corroborated by the southern region’s Russia-backed administration.

Ukraine’s forces hit the ammunition depot in the village of Rykove, located just inland from the Sea of Azov in Kherson, Ukrainian military spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said.

The ammunition depot had been “significant,” Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said in a Telegram post Sunday.

Kherson’s Russian-backed administration in the region confirmed Ukrainian shelling on its Telegram channel. It said two missiles, which could have been Storm Shadow cruise missiles, hit the town, while one was intercepted by air defense.

Seven strikes from multiple rocket launchers also targeted an area further west in the region, near the village of Lazurne, according to the Russia-backed officials. Five of those rockets intercepted, they said.

Ukrainian barrage: A separate statement from Ukraine’s military Sunday claimed to have hit several targets over the past 24 hours.

CNN is unable to verify any battlefield claims, which come amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive aimed at recapturing Russian-held territory.

Strikes on Russian infrastructure in occupied areas, referred to as “shaping operations,” were a feature of the build-up to the campaign.

Ukraine has taken back a village near the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, the leader of the Russian-installed administration there said Sunday.

Ukrainian forces claimed the village of Piatykhatky — located south of Zaporizhzhia city, just east of the Dnipro River — according to Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russia-backed government body in the occupied region.

“Our artillery continues to strike the enemy infantry, who have entrenched in the village,” WarGonzo, a Russian pro-Kremlin military blog, said of the situation in Piatykhatky on Sunday.

“Reports from the ground indicate that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have concentrated significant reserves on the approaches to Piatykhatky. Those are mainly infantry, but heavy armored vehicles have also been spotted,” the blogger said in a post on Telegram.

Debris litters a beach in Odesa, Ukraine, on June 13. 

Authorities in the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa have closed off beaches because poor water quality — caused in part by the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse — poses a “genuine threat” to local residents.

“The beaches of Odesa have been declared unsuitable for swimming due to a significant aggravation in the condition of water in open water areas (sea, estuary) and a genuine threat to the health of the city residents,” the Odesa municipality said in a Telegram post Sunday.

Odesa’s stretch of sandy beaches and holiday resorts proved popular with Ukrainian and foreign visitors, who flocked to the region before the war hit. The beaches have been largely abandoned by swimmers in recent months, as mines from the war with Russia continue to wash on to the shoreline.

Now a devastating dam collapse elsewhere in southern Ukraine has sent much more wartime debris along the Dnipro River, turning Odesa’s Black Sea coastline into “a garbage dump and animal cemetery,” according to Ukrainian authorities.

Odesa officials raised the alarm about the declining water quality in a Telegram post Saturday, saying that lab tests had “identified infectious agents over the past week.”

Traces of salmonella, worm’s eggs and worm’s larvae were all found in the water which also “significantly” exceeded permitted levels for lactose-positive E. Coli.

“The presence of all of these biological pathogens in the water of open water areas in Odesa region, including the Black Sea, the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Estuary, and the Danube River, constitutes a genuine threat to the life and health of the population,” the municipality added.

On Saturday, the municipality announced that Odesa residents were also prohibited from selling fish and seafood from “unidentified places of fishing” near markets and shopping centers.

His forearms bulged with the effort of holding on to the straining leash of a slobbering dog. The creature’s muffled grunts could be felt as much as heard – like the growls of a souped-up truck.

Which was fitting, given that his owner’s call sign is Brabus – after the German firm specializing in bulking out luxury vehicles with engineering testosterone.

“Come,” Brabus grunted as he was towed back into a roadside building for our clandestine meeting with some of his special operations team.

They’re part of a shadowy tapestry of units falling under various Ukrainian intelligence organizations. They operate in the crepuscular landscapes in the war against Russian occupation on and beyond the front lines.

Other groups run by Ukrainian intelligence include the Russian Volunteer Force and Freedom for Russia Legion, formed of Russian citizens fighting to rid their homelands of President Vladimir Putin, which are currently carrying out raids inside Russia from Ukraine.

But Brabus and his group are entirely homegrown. Former soldiers with specialist skills, they coalesced around an ex-officer from the Ukrainian forces in the first days of Russia’s invasion last year.

Those who’ve survived – and many have not – are now often set to work at tactical tasks aiming for strategic effect. Crudely put: killing Russian officers to collapse Russian morale.

Read the full story here.

Two people were killed when a Russian anti-tank missile hit their car as they tried to deliver aid in the Kharkiv region Saturday morning, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.

The victims were described as a 41-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman.

The pair had been “delivering food and medicine to local residents” in the Bohodukhiv district, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the northeastern region’s military administration.

More people may have been killed or injured in the strike, according to Kharkiv’s Prosecutor’s Office.

Separately, in the Kupyansk area of Kharkiv region, homes, a park and a gas network were also damaged by Russian attacks, Syniehubov said.

Ukrainian servicemen ride by boat in a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Ukraine, on June 8, 2023.

The death toll from the collapse of a major dam in Russian-occupied Ukraine is now at least 45, according to updates from authorities on both sides.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said Saturday that at least 16 people died from the flooding and 31 are still missing in areas of the region it controls.

The Ukrainian ministry also said 3,614 people had been evacuated from its flooded areas, “including 474 children and 80 people with reduced mobility.”

On the same day, the known death toll in Russian-occupied areas rose to 29 people, Russian-backed Kherson official Andrey Alekseenko posted on Telegram.

Remember: Ukraine controls the west bank of the Dnipro River and the city of Kherson after its counteroffensive last year, while Russian troops remain on the east bank in the larger Kherson region.

More background: The Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine collapsed on June 6. As the largest reservoir of water in Ukraine, it held a volume equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah.

CNN has not been able to verify if the dam’s destruction came as a result of a deliberate attack from one of the warring parties or from structural failure. Both Ukrainian and Russian officials blame an explosion from the opposing side for causing it.

The dam collapse has repercussions for both nations.

For Ukraine, it has destroyed villages, flooded farmland, deprived thousands of power and clean water, and caused massive environmental damage. For Russian forces, it has washed up troops, flooded trenches and removed natural defenses they relied on along the Dnipro River.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, on June 18, 2023.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Beijing for a high-stakes visit meant to steer relations between the United States and China back on course after months of inflamed tensions between the two nations.

Officials from both governments have signaled low expectations for the visit, but Blinken has vowed to raise “our very real concerns on a range of issues,” including the war in Ukraine.

While Beijing has sought to play the part of peacemaker between Moscow and Kyiv, China’s messaging has been met with significant skepticism by US officials and other Western leaders.

China has released a vaguely worded position paper on a “political settlement” to the conflict, but it has been criticized for not calling on Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory, as Kyiv and more than 100 governments around the world have done.

And Western officials raised concerns earlier this year that China could be considering providing Russia with lethal military assistance, an accusation denied by Beijing.

In April, senior US Treasury officials said they had not seen evidence China is providing extensive assistance to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but officials remain wary as the two countries forge closer ties.

Ahead of his visit Saturday, Blinken spoke by phone separately with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin. A US State Department spokesperson said Blinken discussed regional priorities with both leaders, as well as reaffirming each country’s continued support for Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Read more here.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces has not yet gained the momentum that some overly optimistic observers anticipated. So far it feels like the prelude to a more expansive act.

Offensive operations so far have yielded modest gains in the southern regions like Zaporizhzhia, with multi-layered Russian defenses proving tough to crack. The area is seen as a major target for Ukraine as it would mean breaking Russia’s land-bridge between annexed Crimea and eastern Donetsk.

But there are also signs that Ukrainian forces are spreading their bets, looking to pare back Russian gains around Bakhmut and exploiting what they perceive as vulnerabilities elsewhere in the east.

Rather than a display of overwhelming force that concentrates newly-formed brigades in one direction, the Ukrainians appear to be trying to pull Russian units in different directions, working out which might be weak, or exploiting lines separating different battalions.

On Thursday, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the first goal was to wipe out as many Russian draftee units as possible and “increase the psychological pressure on the Russian army.”

Read the full story here.