A critical dam along the front line in southern Ukraine was destroyed on Tuesday, sending cascades of water pouring through the breach and putting thousands of people downstream at risk. Ukraine and Russia each accused the other of blowing up the dam, which held back a body of water the size of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and electric plant, which lies along the Dnipro River and is held by Russian forces. As water levels rose south of the dam, residents in the town of Antonivka, about 40 miles downstream, described watching in horror as roiling floodwaters swept past carrying trees and debris from washed-out houses.
Ukrainian emergency crews rushed to evacuate the most vulnerable on the western side of the river, while conservationists warned that a huge and long-lasting environmental disaster was unfolding.
It was more difficult to assess what was happening on the eastern bank of the river south of the dam. But more than 40,000 people could be in the path of the flooding on both Ukrainian- and Russian-controlled territory, the deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, Viktoriya Lytvynova, said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed “Russian terrorists,” while the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said Ukrainian forces carried out a “sabotage” attack.
The disaster came one day after American and Russian officials said a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive might have begun east of the Dnipro in the Donetsk region. Though the dam is far from that fighting, its destruction could divert both sides’ resources from the counteroffensive….
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More American Ukraine aid takes a political turn in. the House…..
A split emerged on Tuesday between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over a possible supplemental bill to boost Pentagon spending levels above what was agreed to in the debt ceiling fight last week.
McConnell on Tuesday insisted the $886 billion in funding for the Department of Defense as part of the debt ceiling deal is not enough. That put him at odds with McCarthy, who on Monday had spurned a bipartisan push by senators last week for a funding increase for Ukraine and other priorities….
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However, Republicans are now dealing with issues on their right flank. The Speaker and the House Freedom Caucus have found themselves at odds in the aftermath of the debt ceiling vote, with conservative members tanking a rule vote earlier on Tuesday — the first time that has happened in more than 20 years — in reaction to the deal…
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Democrats also backed up McConnell’s position if the White House requests more funding for Ukraine in the coming weeks or months. Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told reporters that he would “do everything I can to support it on a bipartisan basis.” …..
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AMERICAN CEMETERY, Normandy, France (AP) — U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley said Tuesday that fighting in Ukraine has increased, but he cautioned against reading too much into each day’s operations.
“There’s activity throughout Russian-occupied Ukraine and fighting has picked up a bit,” Milley said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press at the American Cemetery in Normandy, France — the final resting place of almost 9,400 troops who died 79 years ago during the allied D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.
Milley said it was up to Ukraine to announce whether its counteroffensive campaign has formally begun, but he said Ukrainian troops are ready for this fight.
“It’s our estimation that the Ukrainian military is well prepared for whatever they do — they choose to fight in the offensive fight or in the defense,” he said. “They’re well-prepared.”
But he also warned that as time goes on the fighting will vary….
image….Bloomberg