Russia Steps Up Claims Of Kyiv Blowing Dam & Forces Repelling Offensive

State-run Tass reportingcomments from Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on the incipient Ukrainian counteroffensive. Shoigu: “For three days, the Ukrainian regime launched a long-promised offensive in different sectors of the front, concentrating a large amount of equipment and manpower [...] In just three days of hostilities in all directions, the losses of Ukraine amounted to 3,715 military personnel, 52 tanks, 207 armored combat vehicles, 134 vehicles, 5 aircraft, 2 helicopters, 48 field artillery pieces and 53 unmanned aerial vehicles," There has been no independent verification of these claims.

• Shoigu also claims that the Kakhovka dam was blown up by Ukraine. Also states that 'Ukraine has begun to build defensive positions on the right bank of the Dnipro. Says that Ukraine 'blew up' the dam in order to deploy units from Kherson to the offensive zone.
• Russia and Ukraine deny responsibility for the dam breach but many military analysts and Ukrainian officials lay the blame as Moscow's door. They argue that Russia has more to gain by limiting Kyiv's ability to launch an offensive in the south by flooding the territory, thereby forcing Ukrainian forces to counterattack in the east where Russian defenders are more dug-in.
• This could limit Ukraine's ability to retake the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, reach the city of Melitopol, or the Sea of Azov. These represent key targets for Ukraine as they would remove Russia's land bridge to the occupied Crimean peninsula, limiting re-supply options to the region to the Kerch Strait Bridge.