WASHINGTON (Dispatches) - Fighting has intensified between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the southern Zaporizhzhia region amid speculations that it is a possible prelude to the expected offensive by Kiev.
Russian officials on Friday cited “active combat” ongoing in the region between Orekhovo and Tokmak
Ukraine has offered no confirmation, but its forces bolstered by Western weapons and training have been expected for months to launch a counteroffensive.
The conflict comes as the human and environmental costs rise after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and devastating floods in another part of southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military said in a Facebook post that “the enemy is on the defensive” in Zaporizhzhia.
It said it had destroyed four missiles and 10 drones out of 20 that Russia had fired at “military installations and critical infrastructure”.
The local governor of Russia said a drone crashed into a residential building in the city of Voronezh in the south of Russia and two people were injured.
Drone strikes have frequently hit Russian cities - including Moscow - in recent months. It is the first such incident in Voronezh, a city of about one million people.
Belgorod region, which borders Voronezh region, has been heavily shelled this month, forcing thousands of people to flee the border towns.
Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the bursting of the Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which sent waters cascading across the war zone of southern Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday.
It forced thousands to flee their homes as water surged into the Dnipro River, flooding dozens of villages and parts of the regional capital Kherson.
A total of 600 square kilometers of the Kherson region is underwater, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on social media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday denounced the attack on the dam as a ‘’barbaric act that led to a large-scale environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.”
Currently, nearly 42,000 people are reportedly at risk of being affected by the flooding in Russian and Ukrainian-controlled areas along the Dnipro River.
Ukraine also blamed Russia for the dam’s destruction, describing it as the result of a “Russian act of terrorism.”
Russian authorities in Kherson on Friday reported eight deaths from the flood and said the water could keep rising for more than a week
Pentagon Announces $2bn Ukraine Air Defense Package

The U.S. Department of Defense announced the latest in a series of aid packages for Ukraine on Friday, an additional $2.1 billion in security assistance that it said included critical air defense and ammunition capabilities.
The package includes additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems, Raytheon HAWK air defense systems and missiles, 105mm and 203mm artillery rounds, AeroVironment Puma unmanned aerial systems, laser-guided rocket system munitions and support for training and maintenance, the Defense Department said in a statement.
Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds will be used to purchase the weapons, allowing President Joe Biden’s administration to buy weapons from industry rather than pull them from U.S. stocks. Delivery of the weapons and systems depends on their availability and production timeline.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow will deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus next month, a move that the Belarusian opposition described as an attempt to blackmail the West.
Putin said during a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that work on building facilities for the nuclear weapons will be completed by July 7-8, and they will be moved to the territory of Russia’s neighbor and ally quickly after that.
The move comes as Ukraine has stepped up attacks in several sectors of the front line in what some observers see as the start of its long-expected counteroffensive.
Tactical nuclear weapons are intended to destroy enemy troops and weapons on the battlefield. They have a relatively short range and a much lower yield than nuclear warheads fitted to long-range strategic missiles that are capable of obliterating whole cities.
Putin announced the planned deployment of the short-range nuclear weapons in Belarus earlier this year in a move widely seen as a warning to the West as it stepped up military support for Ukraine. He has emphasized that Russia will retain control of them.