New prisoner exchange, de-occupation of villages, blowing up of another dam: highlights of the day

De-occupation of villages

A spokesman for the Tauride Defense Forces stated that the Defense Forces have launched an offensive on the Tauride axis. In particular, today it became known that the villages of Blahodatne, Neskuchne and Makarivka in Volnovakha district of Donetsk Oblast were liberated.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar also said that in the south, there are advances in two directions from 300 to 1,500 meters. On the Bakhmut axis, Ukrainian troops continue their assault operations: there is a success in the area of Berkhivske water reservoir. The defense forces have advanced 250 meters.

Dam explosion in Donetsk Oblast

The occupiers blew up a dam on the Mokri Yaly River in Donetsk Oblast to slow down Ukraine's counteroffensive. This caused flooding on both banks of the river, but will not affect the conduct of hostilities, said a spokesman for the Tauride Defense Forces.

Prisoner exchange

Ukraine returned 95 more of its defenders as part of another prisoner swap. The list of those released includes 93 privates and sergeants, as well as two officers. Seven of them took part in a special operation, flying by helicopter to the besieged Mariupol.

There are also released prisoners from Mariupol (including Azovstal), the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Snake Island. In addition, 27 defenders defended the Donetsk axis (five of them fought near Bakhmut). Defenders of the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Luhansk, and Sumy axes were also released.

Completion of the audit of shelters

Almost 63,000 shelters have already been inspected in Ukraine, which is more than 99% of their total number. Almost 33% of them were found to be closed or unusable, or one third, the State Emergency Service reported.

Rescuers noted that all 4,655 shelters in Kyiv were checked, of which 0.6% were closed and 34.6% were unusable. Before that, the government and the city authorities reported that the inspection of shelters in Kyiv had been completed, but their data differed.

Shelling of an evacuation boat in Kherson Oblast

Russian occupiers fired at a boat in southern Ukraine. The boat was evacuating civilians from the east-bank Kherson Oblast, which suffered from flooding. Three people were killed and 23 others injured.

Despite this, Ukraine still managed to evacuate 112 people from the occupied east bank of Kherson Oblast. These include 54 women and 7 children.

Consequences of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant explosion

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has already recorded six deaths due to flooding in the south as a result of the Russian explosion of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. At the same time, the Kherson Oblast State Administration says that doctors report eight deaths in the occupied Oleshky community alone.

Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine, said that the explosive hazard in Ukraine has increased due to the explosion of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant: the water has washed away the enemy's weapons depots on the east bank of Kherson Oblast, and ammunition and mines are being carried to the shores.

Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar noted that Russians are moving their most combat-ready units from the Kherson axis. According to her, this indicates the reason for the hydroelectric power plant explosion - the desire to "narrow" the possible geography of active actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces due to the inability to contain the Ukrainian offensive.

British intelligence stated that after the Kakhovka dam was blown up, water would soon stop flowing to Crimea because it disrupted the operation of the North Crimean Canal, the main source of fresh water on the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula.