Ukraine Update…475 days into the Russian move on Ukraine….Slow Offense…Flood…..

In Moscow, a U.S. citizen has been taken into custody, according to a court statement.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• Zelensky publicly confirmed the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive for the first time, but he would not reveal details about what stage the fight is in. He said Saturday that he is in daily contact with military commanders on the front lines. “Appropriate counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine,” he said. “I believe we will certainly feel all this.”
• A U.S. citizen was taken into custody in Moscow on Saturday, according to a Telegram statement from Moscow’s courts of general jurisdiction. The Khamovniki District Court of Moscow identified the man as Michael Travis Leek. (CNN reported that his name is Travis Leake.) He is accused of dealing drugs, according to the court, and will remain in custody until at least Aug. 6. The State Department said it was aware of an American being detained, but it declined to confirm anything about the case.
• Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine attacked a ship that is part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The ministry said in a statement Sunday that Ukrainian forces “made an unsuccessful attempt” to attack the Priazovye about 1:30 a.m. local time, using six unmanned surface vehicles, or drone boats. The ship is tasked with monitoring pipelines that bring gas from Russia to Turkey, the ministry said. The Washington Post could not independently verify the claim, and Ukrainian officials have not spoken publicly about the allegation.
• Two devices believed to be drones crashed in Russia’s Kaluga region early Sunday, its governor, Vladislav Shapsha, said on Telegram. One drone crashed in the Zhukovsky district, damaging two houses, and another device presumed to be a drone crashed in a forest in the Medynsky district, he said. No one was injured, Shapsha added. Kaluga is about 125 miles southwest of Moscow.
• The leader of an international nuclear watchdog wants access to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant to ensure water levels are properly cooling the six reactors there, according to a Sunday statement. Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said water levels have been “dropping rapidly” since the wartime destruction of the nearby Kakhovka reservoir last week. Grossi is expected to visit Kyiv and the plant this upcoming week, per the statement.

• Three civilians were killed and 10 were injured after Russian forces attacked a boat with people fleeing across the Dnieper River, Kherson region leader Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram. The group was leaving a flooded Russian-controlled area and heading toward the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said. The flooding occurred after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed last week, and each side has accused the other of attacking people fleeing the devastation that it says the other caused.
• Because of the dam breach, “water will soon stop flowing to Crimea,” which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, Britain’s Defense Ministry said. However, the ministry said Russian authorities will probably be able to provide Crimeans and people in the southern Kherson region with the water they need in the short term. In northern Kherson, one resident of Nova Kakhovka told The Post that authorities instructed people to not use tap water after the blast, citing potential health risks. The Post is not identifying the resident because of the potential for reprisal.
• The Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kherson region is also suffering from water deficiencies, Prokudin said. Authorities were working to deliver bottled water to residents, he said, and health authorities are monitoring water for potential infectious diseases.
• Ukraine’s military said it took the villages of Blahodatne and Makarivka near Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region. Ukraine’s army posted a video of the 68th Jaeger Brigade’s advance in Blahodatne on Sunday; The Post could not confirm whether Russian troops remained in either area. These are the first gains that Ukraine has claimed during its counteroffensive. The operation near Velyka Novosilka is one of Ukraine’s three pushes, along with one near Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region and one on the edges of Bakhmut in Donetsk.
• Russia’s military said it repelled several Ukrainian units in the Donetsk region, as well, including near the settlements of Novobakhmutovka, Krasnogorovka and Marinka. Another Telegram post from the Russian Ministry of Defense says a Ukrainian Su-25 close air support jet was shot down near ​​the village of Osokorovka in the Kherson region. These claims could not be independently verified by The Post.
• The warring countries made a nearly even prisoner swap of close to 100 people from each side, according to officials from Ukraine and Russia. Zelensky in his nightly address said 95 prisoners of war, including 31 who fought at the city of Mariupol, returned. The Russian Ministry of Defense posted on Telegram that 94 Russian service members had been returned.
• Three people were killed in airstrikes in the Black Sea city of Odessa on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials. Zelensky said more than 20 people were injured in the attacks, which he blamed on Russian missiles and Iranian-supplied Shahed drones.
• Iranian-supplied drones are a “headache” for Ukraine’s air defense forces, spokesman Yuriy Ignat told Ukrainska Pravda. Tehran has been supplying Moscow with drones, according to U.S. intelligence, and drone attacks have become an almost nightly occurrence in Ukraine since early May, especially in the capital, Kyiv. According to Ignat, the drones fly much more slowly than Ukrainian fighter jets — about 90 to 250 mph — which makes it difficult for jets to down them. Instead, Ukraine has to deploy mobile air defense units and ground air equipment, increasing the risk of detection, he said.
• Ukraine’s military appeared to be carrying out attacks on at least four fronts on Saturday, according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, including near Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region; around the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut; on the border between the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions; and in the western Zaporizhzhia region. The D.C.-based think tank cited geolocated footage for some of the activity. The Post was unable to independently verify the reports.

• Russia’s detention of an American follows those of journalist Evan Gershkovich and security executive Paul Whelan, who have been accused of espionage; the U.S. government has called those accusations baseless. WNBA star Brittney Griner was released from Russian prison in December 2022, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Arrested days before Russia invaded Ukraine, she later received a 9½-year prison sentence for possessing a vape cartridge with less than a gram of cannabis oil.
• French President Emmanuel Macron called on his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, to put an end to drone deliveries that are supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. Macron made the plea in a 90-minute phone call Saturday, Reuters reported. In its own readout of the talks, Tehran said Raisi declared that Iran has a “firm policy of opposing war” and considers diplomacy “the best solution.”
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced about $375 million in new military aid during a surprise visit on Saturday to the Ukrainian capital, along with about $7.5 million to help with the humanitarian response to the collapse of the Kakhovka dam. Separately, Ottawa said it was seizing a Russian-registered cargo plane at the Toronto airport as part of sanctions against Moscow. It also unveiled new sanctions against 24 people “in direct response to Russia’s attempts to destroy Ukraine’s cultural sites, institutions and identity.”
• Britain committed about $20 million in aid for people affected by flooding from the dam collapse, according to a news release. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is sending boats, community water filters, water pumps and waders to Ukraine to help with rescue efforts.

Putin wanted Kherson. Now, residents say Russia is trying to destroy it: Kherson was invaded by Russians and occupied for months. A billboard, echoing a sentiment of Russian President Vladimir Putin, once read: “Russia is here forever,” reports Samantha Schmidt and Serhii Korolchuk.

But once Ukraine refused to surrender Kherson, Putin seemed determined to destroy it…..

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