WAR IN UKRAINE: June 8, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 470
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that the attack on the Kakhovka Dam, if intentional, “would represent the largest attack on civilian infrastructure during the war."
The flood waters may soon start to subside from the bombed Kakhovka Dam, but the effects of this man-made disaster will last for a long time. It’ll take at least five years to repair the damage, officials at Ukraine's Ministry of Agriculture say. As the vast Kakhovka reservoir empties into the sea, vital irrigation systems will simply stop working. Drought and costly crop failures are bound to follow, officials say. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a financial agency of the United Nations, says it's "very concerned" about the social, economic and environmental impacts of the resultant flooding. A spokesperson has said it is "too early to assess the full impact of the damage on the economy", but adds that the IMF is "following the situation closely” - BBC
Talks are underway to partially open the air space over Lviv and re-open the international airport, said Maksym Kozytskyi, the head of the regional military administration. “It's one of those things that we're really looking forward to," he said. Recently a commercial A-330 jet stuck since last year was reportedly flown out of Lviv, which is a huge tourism destination and a gateway to the Carpathian Mountains tourist region. But whether insurance companies will provide coverage for aircraft flying into a war zone is questionable
Retired U.S. Brigadier General Kevin Ryan, who is a regular commentator on the war in Ukraine, told RFE/RL that Russian President Vladimir Putin could resort to nuclear weapons rather than lose Russian forces' land bridge in southern Ukraine, occupied provinces, or annexed Crimea. “It's very much a possible weapon that Russia could use against Ukraine by creating a nuclear accident there (at the ZNPP) that not only irradiates the local area but threatens people downwind from any nuclear meltdown. Remember, after Chernobyl many people throughout Europe claimed, and in some cases were shown to have developed, cancers from the fallout from that nuclear meltdown, radiation. So this could happen again but only two or three times bigger in regard to this nuclear station.”
Russia's Defense Ministry claims a Ukrainian "saboteur group" blew up a segment of the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline, the world's largest ammonia conduit, in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.
Germany is preparing to host the biggest air deployment exercise in NATO’s history, a show of force intended to impress allies and potential adversaries such as Russia - RFE/RL