Victory Chronicles
-DAY 470

KEY TAKEAWAYS TODAY

Above: Rescuers handing out meals to people stranded in flooded buildings. (New York Times)

Above: About 100 people demonstrated in front of the UN headquarters in Kyiv over frustration with the behemoth organization’s impotence and inaction.  The organizer, Ukrainian Union of Students said,  “The United Nations, instead of condemning Russia’s environmental terrorism, congratulated everyone on the ‘Day of Russian Language’.” On a related note, President Zelenskyy said he was shocked that international organizations, such as the UN and Red Cross, have not joined the effort to rescue people from the floods, particularly in Russian occupied territory, where the invaders aren’t rescuing people and Ukrainians are unable to reach. (Suspilne)

• Prime Minister Shmyhal called on international humanitarian organizations to undertake the evacuation of people from the Russian-occupied territories of the Kherson region. “I appealed to the leadership of the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international humanitarian organizations regarding the Russian troops’ detonation of the Kakhovskaya HPP dam.” Ukrainian authorities are evacuating territory under their control, but on the left bank, “people were abandoned by the Russians to rescue themselves.”
• The UK Ministry of Defense in its daily briefing said that under an extremely complex operational environment, heavy battles are ongoing in many areas of the front. In most directions, Ukraine seems to hold the initiative.  “Russian forces are likely still under orders to return to the offensive as soon as possible. Chechen units led a failed attempt to take the town of Maryinka near Donetsk, where the front line has changed little since 2015.” 
• The Russian legislature broadened the legal avenue for confiscating passports from persons “necessary for military or civilian service”. Such legislative manipulations are likely aimed at preventing Russians from fleeing abroad to avoid military service.
•  The Leningrad legislature passed a bill promising a 5-acre land plot to anyone who signs up to fight in Ukraine.

GENERAL STAFF DAILY ENEMY LOSSES

Above: Russian Z-T-62M. (War Spotting)

Above: Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces estimated enemy losses since February 24, 2022, with daily additions

General Staff on Facebook

ENEMY MISSILE AND DRONE STRIKES

Above:  Fire fighting after enemy strikes in Sumy Oblast. The Kyiv Post  analyzed the frequency of air strikes on Ukraine this month and found that Russia is hitting Ukraine on average 57 times per day with air-launched missiles and drones.  On a daily average basis, 109 Ukrainian cities, towns or villages were hit every day of the first week of June. (Photo: Suspilne)

• During the day, the occupiers shelled the communities of Sumy oblast 17 times, 153 explosions were recorded in the oblast, administrative buildings, a church, warehouses of entrepreneurs were damaged,
• Yesterday, the Russian occupying forces shelled the settlements of the Kharkiv, Kupyansk and Chuhuyiv districts. In Volchansk, 6 private residential buildings, a car, and buildings of a civilian enterprise were damaged. In the village of Strelecha, the enemy hit an apartment building from a tank. An apartment on the 5th floor was destroyed. Around 11:00 p.m., the enemy struck the village of Malinivka with an S-300 air defense system, a civilian enterprise was damaged. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
• As a result of shelling by the occupiers in the Donetsk region, members of three generations of a family died, and four more children were injured. According to the investigation, on June 7, 2023, at around 7:45 pm, a residential quarter in the city of Ukrainsk was hit by artillery fire.
• As the region scrambles to mitigate tremendous damage and save lives, over the past day, the enemy fired 193 shells at populated areas of the Kherson region, hitting residential areas, the regional military administration reported on Thursday morning. “The Russian occupiers shelled peaceful settlements in the Kherson region 34 times. They fired 193 shells from artillery, mortars, GRADs and drones. The enemy attacked Kherson 1 time, firing 2 shells into the city. 

KHARKIV-LUHANSK

Above: An anti-Putin Russian Volunteer Corps fighter at the Graivoron border crossing in Kozynka, Bilhorod, from May 23, 2023. The group posted on Telegram Thursday, that it controlled Nova Tavolzhanska, Bilhorod, for the seventh day, due to abandonment by Russian defense forces. (Radio Svoboda)

#UkraineWar #7June
Following the explosion of the Togliatti-#Odessa ammonia pipeline, a toxic cloud has been released and is spreading across the #Kharkiv oblast
The pipeline was one of the items not included in the grain deal#Moscow accuses #Ukraine of sabotage pic.twitter.com/HDL8KpAkYX

— Paolo (@Paoloi96) June 8, 2023

• Ukrainian officials said that Russia finally hit an ammonia pipeline that it has been targeting for the last few days.  The pipeline runs through Kharkiv Oblast.  Geolocated footage shows a large cloud of ammonia leaking from a section of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline just south of Masyutivka, Kharkiv Oblast (12km northeast of Kupyansk).
• Russian forces continued to conduct ground attacks around Kreminna on June 7. Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive operations near Kreminna itself and south of Kreminna near Bilohorivka (10km south), Berestove (30km south), and Vesele (32km south).

DONETSK

Above:  Fighting is still fierce around Bakhmut. (New York Times)

• Ukrainian officials indicated that Ukrainian forces are conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut direction as of June 7. Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut have transferred from defensive to offensive operations and have advanced from 200 to 1,000m in various unspecified areas over the past day. Russian forces are deploying reserves to Bakhmut to prepare to conduct a defense-in-depth and that some Wagner elements are remaining in the Russian rear. Ukrainian forces are advancing on the flanks of Bakhmut and Russian forces are losing certain unspecified positions.
• Russian forces continued limited ground attacks along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line on June 7. Russian forces conducted unsuccessful offensive operations towards Avdiivka and Ukrainian forces repelled 13 Russian ground attacks in Marinka (on the southwestern outskirts of Donetsk City).

ZAPORIZHZHIA-KHERSON-CRIMEA

Above: Evacuation operations in Kherson Oblast continue on Thursday. (New York Times) 

• Kherson occupiers are using the flood to further their program to deport Ukrainian children, announcing that they are sending children from flooded areas to “recreation camps” to occupied Crimea. 
• As of June 7,  29 settlements are partially or fully flooded, 19 of which are located on Ukrainian-controlled territory and 10 on enemy-occupied territories.
• The destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam is significantly changing the geography and topography of the Kherson frontline, heavily disrupting Russian prepared defensive positions on the east bank of the Dnipro River.   The flooding has destroyed many Russian first line field fortifications that the Russian military intended to use to defend against Ukrainian attacks.
• Rapid flooding has forced some Russian personnel and military equipment in main concentration points to withdraw. Russian forces had previously used these positions to shell Kherson City and other settlements on the right bank of Kherson. Russian forces relocated their personnel and military equipment from five to 15 kilometers from the flood zone, which places Russian forces out of artillery range of some frequently targeted settlements on the west of the Dnipro River.The flood also destroyed Russian minefields along the coast, with footage showing mines exploding in the flood water.
• Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate stated that only Russian forces could have detonated the dam given its structural and engineering features and noted that Russians are “very happy that the islands, on which [Ukrainian forces] were allegedly based, were flooded.” Russian forces did not consider the consequences before destroying the dam and were too concerned over stopping Ukrainian forces from crossing the river. 
• Ukraine’s agriculture ministry stated that the damage from Tuesday’s dam disaster will ruin farmlands that before the war yielded millions of tons of grain and oil crops, worth about $1.5 billion. Now, 94% of the irrigation systems in the Kherson region, 74% in Zaporizhzhia and 30% in Dnipropetrovsk will be left without a source of water. “The fields in the south of Ukraine may turn into deserts as early as next year.” The water shortage will not be limited to farmland, but will also affect drinking water supplies.  President Zelensky said on Wednesday that “hundreds of thousands of people have been left without normal access to drinking water”.