Liveblog: ++ Water level in flooded parts gradually decreases ++

The water level in the flooded parts of Ukraine is gradually falling. Russian President Putin says his country’s nuclear weapons are to be stationed in Belarus in July. All developments in the live blog.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to keep in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also spoke to him after the war began. “I intend to do that again soon,” he said at the 38th Evangelical Church Congress in Nuremberg. A prerequisite for a “fair peace” is that Russia withdraws its troops, said Scholz.

Following the destruction of the Kachowka dam in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, fears billions in damage to people, the environment and agriculture. “Cities, infrastructure, entire industries have to be rebuilt,” the diplomat told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “The overall damage will not be visible until the water has drained.”

According to British estimates, the Ukrainian armed forces have made some progress in the fighting in the south and east of the country in the past 48 hours. In some areas, they may have made good headway and got through the first line of Russian defenses, the British Ministry of Defense said.

In other areas, however, the advance was slower. There would have been some credible defensive engagements on the Russian side. Other units, however, would have retreated in some disarray. Reports of casualties among the Russian troops when retreating through their own minefields increased.

According to the Reuters news agency, Russia attacked the central Ukrainian region of Poltava during the night with rockets and attack drones. Regional governor Dmytro Lunin said on the short message service Telegram that there was “some damage to infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield. Eight private homes and several vehicles were also damaged in the attack. There were no reports of injuries.

According to Ukrainian sources, three civilians were killed in a Russian airstrike on the Black Sea port of Odessa. Debris from a downed drone fell on a block of flats during the night and caused a fire, the Ukrainian military said. According to rescue workers, 27 people were injured, including three children. The fire was quickly extinguished. According to the military, the air defenses in the region shot down eight Iranian-made Russian drones and two missiles.

The situation in Ukraine has deteriorated significantly after the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam, according to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths. 700,000 people are dependent on drinking water, Griffiths told the AP news agency. Because of flooding, grain exports would likely fall, global food prices would rise, and available amounts of food would decrease. The consequences would only gradually be recognized.

The UN has so far helped 30,000 people in flooded areas controlled by Ukraine, Griffiths said. So far, Russia has not enabled the United Nations to help flood victims in areas that the occupying country has occupied. Griffiths said the collapse of the dam would also jeopardize the supply of cooling water to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. In addition, there are landmines from the war that are being pushed by the floods into areas where they are not expected. This is a danger especially for children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that tactical nuclear weapons will be stationed in Belarus from July. Preparations in the relevant facilities would be completed on July 7 and 8, according to the state news agency TASS, Putin said after a meeting with Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. Then the transfer will begin. Everything is on schedule. This would start the deployment just before the NATO summit in Lithuania, a neighboring country of Belarus. The summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius will take place on July 11-12.

Putin had already announced on March 25 that he would transfer Russian nuclear weapons to the former Soviet republic of Belarus. He also justified the announced stationing of the weapons with the fact that the USA had nuclear weapons in Europe, including Germany, for years. The West had heavily criticized the plans. At the end of May, Lukashenko had already said that the announced transfer of arms to his country had already begun.

After the blasting of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, the water level in parts of the affected areas has started to drop, according to Ukrainian authorities. 35 settlements on the right bank of the Dnipro River are still flooded, more than 3,700 houses are under water, “but the water is gradually receding,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Ukrainian military administration in the Kherson region. The water level in the region dropped from an average of around 5.4 meters to almost five meters over the course of Friday, Prokudin continued. His colleague in the Mykolayiv region, Vitali Kim, also stated that the level there is falling.