Notices by Tim Mak (timkmak@journa.host), page 20

The Counteroffensive spoke with our friend Oleksandr Selyverstov, a former nuclear engineer at the nuclear power plant in question.

His analysis is heart-stopping.

Read it at: http://counteroffensive.news

"If an explosion caused the cooling pools to vaporize, the fuel rods in the plant could melt down in seven to eight days for reactors on cold shutdown, a hydrogen explosion could cause further structural damage."

So what’s going on? The Russians could be planning either an area-denial attack with a limited contamination zone that will then tie up personnel, resources, and money—and take the ZNPP offline, perhaps indefinitely—in a scorched earth retreat.

The Counteroffensive staff are based in Kyiv and if the plant suffers a catastrophic explosion, we have a plan:

Shelter in place and make use of our subscriber funded (THANK YOU SO MUCH) equipment!

Today's Dog of War is this skeptical beagle Tim saw in Warsaw.

Read the rest of our Sunday newsletter at: http://counteroffensive.news

Editor’s note: This week we posted a story highlighting a trans activist in Ukraine; after all, Russia cited LGBTQ+ rights as a reason for the war.

We didn’t anticipate the negative reaction: more than 1,000 readers unsubscribed, and we lost paid subscribers as well.

Good morning to readers. Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands, but downstream the worst ecological disaster in a generation is brewing.

Experts are calling the Kakhovka Dam breach the worst ecological crisis in Ukraine since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986

Today's main character is Serhii Sheptyuk, a retiree and fisherman who we found wading along the Dnipro River, collecting trash as the water level receded

“This is the first time in my life I’ve seen something like this,” the 69 year old said.

Sheptyuk alternates between sadness and anger – the latter directed at the Russian military.

"If a monkey sits on a tree branch and you see him cutting his own tree branch off by himself, what else can you say about it?"

150 tonnes of industrial chemicals – specifically lubricants – have been washed away due to the dam collapse, President Zelenskyy said.

And flood waters will engulf towns, gas stations, and farms -- and those waters will "become contaminated by agrochemicals and oil products and then flow into the Black Sea,” The Guardian reported.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/dam-breach-could-be-ukraines-worst-ecological-disaster-since-chornobyl

Here in Zaporizhzhia, we are standing upstream of Kakhovka Dam, which all available evidence indicates the Russians breached earlier this week

Downstream of the dam, there has been catastrophic flooding in areas like Kherson. Upstream of the dam, where we are, locals watch the river helplessly as the waterline backs off more and more.

As the waterline continues to fall back, Sheptyuk sees trash in the mud -- and he just won't have it. He wades out into the water barefoot, to pick up glass and discarded fishing equipment.

He has been fishing his entire life along the Dnipro, but mourns the changes due to the war. The ferry that operated along the river is closed down. Now many locals who were fishing no longer do so, due to missile attacks, restrictions and pollution.

There ARE places along the Dnipro where the fish are biting, but only because an ecological disaster is looming, and the fish have less places to hide.

As the water in the Dnipro flows out and causes flooding downstream, slow-flowing tributaries are quickly running dry.

Near Zaporizhzhia, we ran into men drinking beers in the afternoon sun and having a ton of luck catching fish.

In about five days, one of the fishermen said, this waterway was likely to be completely dry. Any fish which had not already escaped by that time would be dead.

Meanwhile the humanitarian crisis sparked by the dam collapse continues. President Zelenskyy announced that some 3,000 residents in the flood zone have been evacuated out of danger.

Another big risk for humanitarian workers in the area is that rising floodwaters will dislodge mines and unexploded ordnance, notes the International Committee of the Red Cross.

https://www.icrc.org/en/document/nova-kakhovka-dam-icrc-responds-water-and-health-assistance

State Dept official: Western exports of microchips/electronics to Russia are back to pre-invasion levels

European companies sell to companies in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, the UAE and Armenia, which then turn around and sell the items to Russia
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-better-evading-western-sanctions-electronics-war-ukraine/

Here's what The Counteroffensive is reading today:

Tensions between Wagner and Russian forces have been a routine side show of the conflict so far. In a new escalation, a Russian officer is accused of drunkenly firing on Wagner members as they drove by.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65809844