Ukraine-Russia war – latest: Kyiv accuses Putin of blowing up second dam

Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up a dam on the Mokri Yaly river to make it harder for Kyiv’s forces to push farther south as part of its ongoing counteroffensive. It comes less than a week after the huge Kakhovka dam was destroyed on the much larger Dnipro River, in the Kherson region, causing a humanitarian catastrophe. In other developments, Kyiv said its troops had recaptured a fourth village from Russian forces in a cluster of settlements in the southeast, a day after reporting the first small gains of its long-anticipated counteroffensive. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar posted a photo showing soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag at what she said was the village of Storozheve in Donetsk, and thanked the 35th Separate Brigade of Marines for liberating it. Reuters confirmed the location of the footage. Kyiv also said on Sunday that its forces had liberated three villages - Blahodatne, Neskuchne and Makarivka. Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday it had repelled attempted offensives by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions and had hit targets with sea-launched high-precision missile strikes. Read More How significant is the reported recapture of the first Ukrainian villages from Russia? Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert pulls new book from publication after backlash to Siberian setting Putin uses public holiday to laud patriotic feelings as support for troops in Ukraine