Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Ukraine’s domestic security service said it intercepted a phone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine.

It posted a recording of what it said was an intercepted telephone call on its official Telegram channel. The recording is presented as being between two unidentified Russian soldiers or officials with no indication of where or when the call purportedly took place.

While one of the men appears to claim a Russian sabotage group was responsible for attacking the dam, he offers no evidence in support. The recording has not been verified by CNBC.

The audio of the recorded is as follows, according to a translation by NBC:

–There was a video yesterday on Telegram: a soldier stands, his face is covered, and fully equipped. And tells that there is no flooding and that people live normal lives. But there is a window behind him and it is visible that the sea is up to a knee [means lots of water].

-Ah-ha… cool. Is it about HPP? HPP that was destroyed?

-Yes, yes.

-Ah, I see.

-The main issue is that as it turned out this HPP cools a reactor, their one, some atomic reactor.

-Well, great, screw up themselves. It will blow up and that’s it!

-That’s ours [Russian] to blew it up. It’s not theirs [Ukrainians], it’s ours did.

-No way, ours? It was said that khokhols [derogatory term for Ukrainians] blew it up.

-There wasn’t a blow up. That was our sabotage group. They wanted, kind of to scare [blackmail] by the dam, but it went unplanned, more than they planned.

-Well, naturally, it will cover [affect] like in Chernobyl, right?

-The construction is from 50th [1950th]. Rapidly collapsed. There was a safari-park down there, thousands of animals died.

-Got it.

The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, was separately quoted in the Telegram post as saying: “We remind you that the Security Service of Ukraine has opened criminal proceedings on the fact of a war crime committed by the Russian Federation. By blowing up the Kakhovka HPP dam, the Russian Federation finally proved that it is a threat to the entire civilized world. After all, only a real terrorist state can arrange a man-made and ecological catastrophe of this level.”

— Natasha Turak

The Russian-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, an area of southeastern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, announced the formation of a militia via his Telegram account.

In a translation provided by The Guardian, the governor, Evgeny Balitsky, wrote: “In the Zaporizhzhia region, a people’s militia has been created, which, together with the police and the military commandant’s office, will take over patrolling and law enforcement in the settlements of the Zaporizhzhia region.”

“Today, the first militias took the oath of allegiance to the Zaporizhzhia region and the inhabitants of our region,” he added. “I am confident in the openness of the hearts of our countrymen, their steadfastness and desire to help.”

— Natasha Turak

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, says it intercepted a call that proves Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka dam in southeastern Ukraine, which has caused enormous flooding and destruction on the surrounding area.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for the explosion. The dam, located on the Dnipro river, was in Russian-occupied territory. It was built in 1956 and provided water for the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station and irrigation, as well as water for cooling reactors at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The plant and the dam were both occupied by Russian forces shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

— Natasha Turak

The Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant, which sits on the Dnipro river in the southern Kherson region, collapsed Tuesday, forcing downstream communities to evacuate due to the risk of flooding. The cause of the dam’s collapse is not yet confirmed, with Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of its destruction.

The Dnipro river has served as a frontline between the warring armies following Russia’s retreat from Kherson and surrounding areas last autumn. The dam and plant had been under the control of Russia, which occupies a swath of land south and southeast of the river.

A senior official and a soldier on the frontlines in Ukraine told NBC News that the long-awaited counteroffensive has begun. For weeks, Russian forces have braced for the new Ukrainian military push with Western allies declining to speculate on the timing of the counteroffensive.

The revelation comes on the heels of a catastrophic attack on the Kakhovka dam in southeastern Ukraine, which both Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for.

Read the full story from NBC News here.

— Amanda Macias