An Empire.

Or nothing at all.

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1. On June 4th—two days before the anniversary of D-Day, the start of the liberation of Europe from the Nazis—Ukrainian forces launched what Russia’s defense ministry called a “large-scale” assault on five axes in the south-east of Donetsk province, in eastern Ukraine. Some of them may indeed threaten the land bridge; others were further to the north. Western officials tell The Economist that this does in fact mark the start of the offensive, with attacks also under way on other parts of the front. Yet the cream of Ukraine’s forces has not yet appeared on the battlefield. (Source: economist.com, italics mine)

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2. The Kakhovka dam spanning the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine was breached earlier today, flooding swaths of territory ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive and threatening crucial water supplies to a nuclear power plant. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the damage, which Kyiv warned would have “catastrophic consequences” and affect dozens of settlements as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which relies on water flow from the reservoir upstream of the dam to cool the reactors. Oleksandr Prokudyn, governor of Ukraine’s Kherson region, said Russian forces controlling the area had blown up the dam and ordered the evacuation of several villages along the Ukraine-controlled western bank of the Dnipro river. (Source: ft.com)

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