Clearly there is some incorrect reporting here aimed at stiring up the conflict. Ukraine has agreed not to attack Russian soil and would certainly not hit civilian targets, to do so would be a war crime. Besides using drones is not what the UK expected them to do when they provided the long range Stormshadows, if you are going to attack civilians you have to at least try to kill a few, otherwise it's a waste of a perfectly good missile and only causes terror. Although then it would be a terrorist attack and a war crime.

appears to me, that the drones were trying to take out the air defense systems. Jamming the drone signal, to knock them off course would be the jammers fault.

Have to agree with Robin with regard the jamming of the drones. Though I'm still not convinced that this is not another ploy by Putin. He's now making threats against some of our MPs and the UK. If he would like a suggestion or two, I know a few of our MPs I would happily like to see the back of .

Ben Wallace, the current UK Defence Minister and who is in line to become the new head of NATO, though many say his chances are limited due to Brexit, was asked about Ukraine gaining entry to NATO to which he indicated that it won't be anytime soon, if at all. This marries with similar commentary coming out of the US. While they are not against individual countries signing mutual defence pacts, NATO membership for Ukraine is just a pipe dream, the country could not meet the criteria, despite NATO members and many others arming it to the teeth to help with its fight with Russia. Wallace in the same interview agreed that the western nations currently backing Kyiv are running out of armaments to donate.

As an alternate strategy there are proposals for all current NATO members to drastically increase their defence budgets and increase the output from their armaments industries, putting many on a semi permanent war footing for the foreseeable future. Counter to this the US is desperately trying to improve its relationship with both Russia and China. Lloyd Austin, US Defence Secretary, recently asked for a meeting with his Chinese counterpart but was rejected. The US is also struggling to engage with Russia over either renewing or renegotiating the START nuclear weapons agreement. So far to no avail. Seems both Russia and China are a tad mift at the US attitude towards them and how they might unite going forward on several fronts.

The Kakhovka dam in Ukraine has failed with both Russia and Ukraine blaming each other for the collapse. The dam is one of the largest on the planet with a storage capacity of some 18 million cubic metres and large portions of Kherson are expected to be flooded with some 16,000 plus civilians at risk.

The destruction of the dam will leave Crimea without water and also puts the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant at risk of running of of water to cool the reactors and has damaged some Russian defences built to guard against a Ukrainian Counter Offensive in the region. On the other side Ukraine says this will prevent them mounting any operations in the Kherson region for the foreseeable future.

While both sides blame the other for the destruction third party observers have raised the possibility that recent heavy rain in the region had filled the dam to dangerous levels and the dam, built in 1956, failed as a result of the weight of water increasing to levels well above designed capacity.

Heard about the damage to the Dam on the national news last night. The speculation is that the damage was caused by an explosion close to the wall, and not by a rocket as the Russians have suggested. As to how much water will escape and at what level the dam will drain to, will take a while to determine, as no one will be going diving to inspect the damage anytime soon .

The effects are devastating and far reaching and will continue to be so.

KayyGee wrote: The Kakhovka dam in Ukraine has failed with both Russia and Ukraine blaming each other for the collapse. The dam is one of the largest on the planet with a storage capacity of some 18 million cubic metres and large portions of Kherson are expected to be flooded with some 16,000 plus civilians at risk.

The destruction of the dam will leave Crimea without water and also puts the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant at risk of running of of water to cool the reactors and has damaged some Russian defences built to guard against a Ukrainian Counter Offensive in the region. On the other side Ukraine says this will prevent them mounting any operations in the Kherson region for the foreseeable future.

While both sides blame the other for the destruction third party observers have raised the possibility that recent heavy rain in the region had filled the dam to dangerous levels and the dam, built in 1956, failed as a result of the weight of water increasing to levels well above designed capacity.

Why did Russian forces shell a flooded Ukranian city on Thursday, forcing the suspension of some rescue efforts hours after President Zelensky visited the region to assess the damage caused by the collapse of the Kakhiva Dam ?

From what was being discussed on several of the news channels yesterday, it could be that the Russians have scored an own goal, but we will never know for a while, if ever. They stranded some of their own forces who had to clime up trees to escape the flooding. It also appears that the flooding has washed up a lot of the land mines, and moved them elsewhere, which is going to cause new problems for years to come once the water eventually subsides .

Aida wrote:

KayyGee wrote: The Kakhovka dam in Ukraine has failed with both Russia and Ukraine blaming each other for the collapse. The dam is one of the largest on the planet with a storage capacity of some 18 million cubic metres and large portions of Kherson are expected to be flooded with some 16,000 plus civilians at risk.

The destruction of the dam will leave Crimea without water and also puts the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant at risk of running of of water to cool the reactors and has damaged some Russian defences built to guard against a Ukrainian Counter Offensive in the region. On the other side Ukraine says this will prevent them mounting any operations in the Kherson region for the foreseeable future.

While both sides blame the other for the destruction third party observers have raised the possibility that recent heavy rain in the region had filled the dam to dangerous levels and the dam, built in 1956, failed as a result of the weight of water increasing to levels well above designed capacity.

Why did Russian forces shell a flooded Ukranian city on Thursday, forcing the suspension of some rescue efforts hours after President Zelensky visited the region to assess the damage caused by the collapse of the Kakhiva Dam ?

There are two current scenarios, first Zelenskyy is a high value target and any opportunity to take him out would be taken with out stretched arms. that he had moved on before the shelling just points to either poor communications or a slow reaction from artillery that would have to be re-positioned before opening fire.

Second the Russians may have received reports either from reconnaissance forces or on the ground informants that a large body of Ukrainian troops where moving towards their lines and they took defensive action, that resucue efforts where going on would be, as the US says, collateral damage, the US knows a lot about causing collateral damage.