1/ The Kakhovka reservoir has reached 'dead pool' only two days after its dam was breached, and is no longer able to supply settlements or the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. It's expected to stabilise at a drastically lower depth and to shrink the Dnipro's width by kilometers.⬇️
2/ The head of Ukraine's hydroelecticity provider, Ukrhydroenergo, has said that as of the evening of Thursday 8 June, the reservoir has reached a depth of 12.5 metres (41 ft). This is 20 cm below the point known as 'dead pool', when water can no longer flow from the reservoir.
3/ Ihor Syrota says that water can now no longer flow to settlements and the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The water level is likely to stabilise at around 3 m (9 ft). It's dropping around 1 m daily, so the outflow will continue for another 7-8 days.
5/ When it reaches 11 m it will no longer be able to supply the North Crimean Canal and other irrigation channels serving southern Ukraine. At the current outflow rate, the canals' water supply will be cut off by Sunday.
7/ According to Syrota, "If the dam in the lower part is destroyed to the very base, the reservoir will be no more than three metres deep, and the reservoir itself will decrease in width from 3.5 km, as it was before the explosion, to 1-1.2 km ...
8/ "... meaning the Dnipro riverbed will return to how it was before the construction of the reservoir itself."
9/ Syrota comments that half of the plant is now completely submerged and the other half is 70% underwater. The earthwork between the lock and the station is also submerged and is being eroded. /end
1/ Russian soldiers are reported to be causing chaos in military hospitals, threatening to blow themselves up with grenades, attacking and attempting to rape other patients, robbing patients, drinking, starting fights and calling prostitutes to their wards. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports on a series of cases in which hospitals have been seriously disrupted by misbehaving soldiers. The situation is reported to be deteriorating, as hospitals are overflowing with thousands of wounded men evacuated from Ukraine.
3/ In one of the most dramatic incidents, a military hospital near Solnechnogorsk near Moscow had to be stormed by security forces after a soldier threatened to detonate three grenades he had smuggled in. Hospitals across the region will now be searched for hidden weapons.
1/ Russian commanders are said to be using FPV drones to attack their own soldiers if they fall back from assaults on Ukrainian positions. It's a modern equivalent of the Stalin-era 'blocking detachments' which shot Soviet soldiers who attempted to retreat. ⬇️
2/ Pavel Abrosimov, an ex-convict from Volgograd who is now serving as a stormtrooper, has posted a video via his relatives in which he complains about the behaviour of the leadership of the 33rd Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 82717).
3/ He says that after suffering an injury in which his left arm was rendered useless, he was treated in hospital at the end of December 2024, was assigned to fitness category 'G' (temporarily unfit) and was ordered to take 30 days of sick leave.
1/ Unarmed, injured Russian soldiers are being used as "meat probes" to "trample mines" with their feet, according to a man who has recorded a video appealing for help. His commander tells the wounded: "You are not needed, cripples! Go and die." ⬇️
2/ 52-year-old Private Alexander Alekseevich Konev, serving with the 3rd battalion of the 1008th Motorized Rifle Regiment (military unit 29297), says that despite having a medical exemption from service due to sickness or injury, his commander intends to send him to an assault.
3/ Konev is currently at a training ground awaiting a consultation with a neurologist and a military-medical commission. Although he does not say what is wrong with him, the neurology appointment suggests a head or traumatic brain injury.
1/ Increasing numbers of Russian military policemen (VPs) are reportedly being deployed as assault troops, due to a shortage of manpower along the front lines in Ukraine. The news is being greeted with glee by Russian warbloggers, who detest the corrupt and often brutal VPs. ⬇️
2/ The Russian Telegram channel 'Fox and Raven' reports:
"Across the entire front, there is a clear trend of gradually sending military police into assaults. There are fewer and fewer people in all directions."
3/ "Apparently, the flow of people wishing to sign a contract is not as large as we would like."
Russian warblogger Vladimir Romanov responds with undisguised satisfaction:
"I've never met more daring, charged fighters (and the closer to the rear – the more charged)."
1/ Very unhappy Russian troops along the Dnipro river in the Kherson region say they are living in terrible conditions, eating nettles, drinking water from shellholes, and living under constant threat from Ukrainian drones which have cut off their supplies of food and water. ⬇️
2/ The difficulties facing the Russians along the Dnipro have previously been highlighted by soldiers complaining that they are being sent to their deaths in futile attempts to seize swampy islands in the Dnipro delta.
3/ In a recently published video, a soldier from an unidentified unit shows a plastic bottle of filthy water that is all he has to drink in his riverside position and complains:
"Problems with water, with food, fuck it, problems with everything, fuck!"
1/ Russia's push to capture Pokrovsk is still being seriously hampered by Ukrainian drones, which are causing major problems for Russian logistics and supplies. Vehicles are unable to reach within 10 km of the front line because of the constant threat of drone attacks. ⬇️
2/ A Russian soldier on the ground writes to the 'Philologist in ambush' Telegram channel about the situation on the front line south of Pokrovsk:
"Everything hasn't changed much, we're still butting heads in the same places.
3/ "Novovasylivka is still behind us, there are head-on battles in Uspenivka, sometimes the faggots will take it, sometimes we'll recapture it, in principle, it's more behind us, but it's more of a gray area.