Vladimir Putin has dramatically bombed his own dam on a reservoir close to the border with Ukraine.
A video shows a FAB-3000 aerial strike to explode the dam which the Ukrainian armed forces were reportedly using to bring troops into Russia’s Belgorod region.
The Popovka reservoir on the Udava River is just 800 feet inside Russia from the frontier between the warring states.
The bombing may be intended to halt exit routes for Ukrainian troops as Russian forces seek to encircle them.
The incursion into Belgorod region, starting last month, adds to territory which Ukraine still holds in Russia’s Kursk region.
The dam bombing came as Putin bared his teeth with new strikes after a lull in overnight bombing 24 hours earlier.
Amid reports the White House now accepts Putin will not sign a ceasefire soon, so risking massive sanctions from Donald Trump,
A massive kamikaze drone strike on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv left eight people injured including three children as Russia yet again sought to terrorise civilians with 15 explosions rocking the city.
“Hits were recorded at two civilian enterprises in the Kholodnogorsk district,” said the Ukrainian state emergency service.
Multiple fires were burning in the city.
The wounded children and adults “suffered an acute reaction to stress”.
The children were aged nine months, seven and 16.
Private residential buildings were damaged.
Other Putin strikes hit Odesa and Zaporizhzhia region, and across the country a total of three people were killed and 18 wounded in the past day.
In Odesa, Russia flouted its pledge not to strike Black Sea facilities but targeting the ports of Pivdenne and Chornomorsk.
Khlibodarske – where a military unit is located – was also in the firing line.
Meanwhile, a state of emergency was declared in Azov Sea port Taganrog, hit by Ukrainian drones.
Ukrainian drones may have been targeting the Beriev Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex.
Some 85 residents were evacuated from a residential building in the city.
Kursk city centre also came under attack, as Ukraine stepped up its strikes on Putin amid clear signs the Russian dictator is not interested in peace.
Russia said 93 Ukrainian drones were downed at night, 87 over the Kursk region, four over the Rostov region and two over the Belgorod region.
The attacks came amid reports that Trump has concluded that a peace deal on Ukraine will probably not be reached in the “coming months”.
