Ukrainian offensive is under way, says Putin – as it happened

The Russian President Vladimir Putin told a conference in Sochi on Friday that Ukraine had begun its expected counteroffensive against Russian forces, but without success.

Julian Borger, our world affairs editor, says there is growing evidence that the Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up after the publication of seismic data showed there was a blast at the site in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Norsar, the Norwegian Seismic Array, said signals from a regional station in Romania pointed to an explosion at 2.54am. Norsar did not draw conclusions on who was responsible.

Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after the facilities are ready on 7-8 July, President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday in a meeting in Sochi, Russia.

Ukraine’s domestic security agency said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in Kherson region. It posted a 90-second audio clip of the alleged conversation on its Telegram channel.

Nato allies on Friday condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE).

The White House said on Friday that Russia appeared to be deepening its cooperation with Iran in “full-scale defence partnership” and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it is using to strike Ukraine.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a €200m (£170m/$215m) loan to Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsya to help improve links to the EU, officials said on Friday.

Hungary said on Friday it had received a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia, a release that Ukraine welcomed while expressing concern that it had not been informed.

The Netherlands’ highest court ruled Friday that a priceless collection of Crimean gold must be handed over to Ukraine, the latest move in a legal tug-of-war spanning almost a decade.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the US President Joe Biden for his $2.1bn (£1.6bn) security assistance package. In a tweet, Zelenskiy said the contribution is “more important than ever” since the Kakhovka dam collapse.

Iceland has announced that from 1 August it will suspend operations of its embassy in Moscow.

The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Friday that Japan will offer emergency humanitarian aid worth about $5m (£3.9m) after the bursting of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Japanese government spokesperson has said.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Friday that it had summoned the Japanese ambassador over Tokyo’s decision to supply military equipment to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 10.5% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period a year ago, the economy ministry said on Friday.

Eight people are dead in Russian-held territory and more than 5,800 have been evacuated from their homes as a result of the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, a senior Russian-appointed official said on Friday. Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Kherson province, which Russia claims to have unilaterally annexed, accused Ukraine of continuing to shell rescuers on the Russian-controlled left bank of the Dnipro River, Reuters reports.

The Ukrainian interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said on Friday four people had died and 13 were missing as a result of flooding in the southern region of Kherson after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

Ukraine’s domestic Security Service (SBU) said earlier on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine. A one-and-a-half minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation featured two unidentified men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian. One of the men said “Our saboteur group is there. They wanted to cause fear with this dam. It did not go according to the plan. More than they planned.”

The Kremlin on Friday accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilian victims of flooding caused by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine in repeated shelling attacks, including one pregnant woman. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the purported attacks “barbaric”. Russia did not provide any evidence to back up its claims.

Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin said on Friday that Crimea’s water supply will not be affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, and the peninsula had enough water reserves for 500 days. A canal from the destroyed reservoir fed drinking water to the peninsula. Kyiv cut access to the canal in 2014, after Russia illegally seized Crimea and claimed to annex it.

Vitalii Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, has posted to Telegram to say that for two hours there has been no rise in the level of the Inhulets River, and “accordingly, there is no water rise throughout the region”.

Ukraine’s interior ministry said one person had been killed, three were wounded, and four buildings were destroyed from falling debris after Russia’s latest attack. Ukraine’s military shot down four cruise missiles and 10 attack drones during a Russian air strike overnight, the air force said in a statement. It said Russian forces had launched 16 drones and six cruise missiles during the attack, and that two other cruise missiles had struck a civilian object in central Ukraine.

Zelenskiy on Thursday hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. “There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam. “But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.

On Friday, deputy defence minister Hannah Maliar said Ukrainian troops were “conducting active combat operations in several areas of the Bakhmut direction” and that Russian troops were “conducting defensive operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction” where “positional battles continue”.

Russia’s army on Friday reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, saying more than 21 Ukrainian tanks had been destroyed in battles across key sections of the frontline. A spokesperson for Russia’s Vostok group of forces said 13 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed in battles in the Zaporizhzhia region and eight in the Donetsk region. It reported artillery, drone and infantry battles. The claims have not been independently verified.

Evgeny Balitsky, the Russian-imposed acting governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, has announced the formation of a people’s militia.

Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has reported that a 33-year-old man was wounded when “Shahed” drones struck an infrastructure object in Bohodukhiv.

Voronezh regional governor Alexander Gusev has said three people were wounded in an attack on the southern Russian city of Voronezh when a drone hit a residential building.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has said it has fended off an aerial attack on the city of Belgorod, with air defence taking out two targets.

Sweden will allow Nato to base troops on its territory even before it formally joins the defence alliance, the prime minister and defence minister said on Friday. “The government has decided that the Swedish armed forces may undertake preparations with Nato and Nato countries to enable future joint operations,” the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and the defence minister, Pål Jonson, said.