The Ukrainian counter-offensive “has begun”. In any case, that is what Vladimir Putin believes he knows. Also according to the Russian president, the Kiev forces have failed to “achieve their objectives” on “none of the battlefields”, he said, Friday, June 9, in a video broadcast on Telegram by a reporter from Russian public television, as heavy fighting rages in southern Ukraine, according to Russian authorities, where several attacks carried out by troops have been repelled.

Vladimir Putin, however, considered that kyiv, which has not confirmed having launched this counter-offensive, is now equipped with modern Western equipment, still had “offensive potential”. An arsenal that could grow in the coming weeks, the United States having announced a new tranche of 2 billion dollars in military aid on Friday, relating mainly to anti-aircraft defense equipment and ammunition.

“Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have continued their attempts to carry out offensives in the Yuzhno-Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, assuring that these had been put in place. failure by the “decisive actions […] of the units of the Russian forces”. A Russian occupation official, Vladimir Rogov, had reported “active fighting in the region between Orekhovo (the Russian name of Orikhiv, editor’s note) and Tokmak”, at the level of the front line between Russian forces and Ukrainians.

On Thursday, the Russian authorities had already assured that they had repelled a Ukrainian offensive in the Zaporizhia region overnight, without giving a specific location.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar had simply asserted that the “epicenter” of the fighting remained “the east” of the country, remaining evasive on southern Ukraine. But for many observers, the fighting in the south attests that “the Ukrainian counter-offensive has begun”, summarizes the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

According to observers, the Ukrainian army could seek, in this region, to attempt a breakthrough towards Tokmak, in occupied territory 40 kilometers south of Orikhiv, an important logistical node for the Russian forces.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has appeared to test Russian positions along the front line from south to east, a way experts say to prepare for an assault to retake Russian-occupied territories, including the Crimea annexed in 2014. Moscow swears for its part that it wants to take the whole of Donbass in the east of the country and all of the southern regions, Kherson and Zaporizhia, partially occupied and whose annexation Russia claims.

In the regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv, floods caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on Tuesday killed at least 13 people: eight in the areas under Russian occupation, and five in those under Ukrainian control, where the authorities also report of thirteen missing. Both sides blame each other for the destruction of the dam. But the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, judged Friday that “everything seemed to indicate” that Russia was responsible.

The Norwegian Seismological Institute said it detected an “explosion” when the dam broke, without attributing the origin of the explosion.

In the flooded areas, everyone watches the evolution of the water level. “According to forecasts, the rising waters may last another ten days,” Vladimir Saldo, head of the occupied part of the Kherson region, said on Telegram.

“The water has already entered the houses and the streets. Every two hours I go out to see if the water is still rising,” said Tatyana Ioenko, a resident of Chornobaivka. In the city of Kherson itself, however, the water level began to drop “for the first time” since Tuesday, according to the local meteorological agency.

On the legal front, the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Friday authorized several allies of Ukraine, including France or Germany, but not the United States, to join the proceedings brought by Kiev in 2022 after the Russian invasion.

Iceland has also announced the indefinite closure of its embassy in Moscow, the first country to take such a decision since the start of the war.

Consult our file: War in Ukraine