KYV: President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown of Krivy Rih, Ukraine, was warned that a Russian cruise missile attack could cause infrastructure damage and flooding of a large river.
Eight cruise missiles were fired on Wednesday at Krivy Rih, the largest city in central Ukraine with a pre-war population of 650,000, according to Ukrainian officials.
There were reports of rapidly rising water levels and serious hydro-technical facility damage on the damaged Inhulets River in the city.
"The pumping station for water was destroyed. After the dam collapsed, the river was swept away on its banks. According to Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsan, the distance between the residential buildings and the river is only a few meters.
In online videos, residents were advised to evacuate after the river was flooded with high water levels and city streets.
Wednesday's attack, with no casualties, was described by a Ukrainian official as "revenge" for the country's ongoing counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region. Zelensky called it an "attempt to flood" the city.
Rih krivi. As retaliation for the Ukrainian military's victory in the Kharkiv region, Russian-clad militants attacked the city, according to Andrey Yermak, a top official in Zelensky's administration, who posted the statement on Twitter. It's useless to you. And [Ukraine] is skilled at awarding.
However, it was unclear at first whether Russia chose the city because it is where Zelensky is from.
Zelensky said the water system in Krivi Rih had "no military value" despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of civilians depend on it every day in a video address early Thursday.
The video was made public after Zelensky returned from a visit to the important city of Izium in Kyiv on Wednesday, a rare climb outside the capital that exposed Moscow's shameful withdrawal from Ukraine's vengeance.
More recently, Ukraine has claimed sweeping victories in the northeastern Kharkiv region bordering Russia and reclaimed land along a southern front near the Kherson region on the Black Sea.
Just a few days earlier, Izium was withdrawn from the Russian army. It is an important transport hub that serves as a gateway to the industrial Donbass region and had over 40,000 inhabitants before the war.
Russia has long been interested in the Donbass, where Russian-backed separatists have been in charge of the majority of the region's government since 2014. When the offensive began in February, it served as a launching point for the rest of the country.
Military analysts attribute the success of Ukraine's pushback in the east to Western supplied weapons, particularly long-range precision artillery, and to Ukraine's force training by Western allies.
Additionally, the counter-attack has given Ukrainians access to more Russian weapons.
According to a Ukrainian think tank, the Russian military abandoned dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other heavy weapons as they fled east of Ukraine.
According to the Center for Defense Strategies, a Russian unit that fled the Izium area left behind more than thirty T-80 tanks and about the same number of infantry fighting vehicles. It said another unit had evacuated 27 armored vehicles and 47 tanks.
According to the centre, as the Russian forces withdrew, some of the abandoned vehicles were targeted by artillery strikes.
Armed forces usually destroy equipment left behind to prevent their opponents from using it. However, it appears that the chaos of the Russian withdrawal forced them to leave behind their unfinished ammunition and weapons.
The Kremlin, which did not talk much about the setbacks until recently, vowed to continue fighting and said Kyiv was still a threat to Russia.
Russian defense officials claimed on Tuesday that their country is carrying out "massive attacks on units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in all operational directions."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin: "Unfortunately, I cannot tell you that until now it has been felt that starting the war was a mistake." This is despite the fact that there is increasing criticism of the invasion in Russia.
After a phone call with Putin on Wednesday, the UN chief lamented the "minimal" prospects for peace in Ukraine at the moment.
"I think peace is far away. If I said it could happen soon, I would be lying," Guterres told a news conference.
Ukraine's counteroffensive gains ground as Russia responds with "massive strikes"
