INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kyiv announced on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had retaken two villages in the eastern region of Donetsk, the first reported gains of their
new offensive.After months of building expectations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that a counteroffensive against
the state border guard service, releasing a video of Ukrainian troops announcing the takeover.They also shouted Kyiv's traditional battle
cries such as "Glory to Ukraine!" and a slogan deriding Russian President Vladimir Putin.Earlier in the day, Ukraine's ground forces said
that soldiers of the 68th separate ranger brigade had liberated the nearby village of Blahodatne.The ground forces released a video showing
soldiers hoisting a Ukrainian flag over a destroyed building.Military spokesman Valeriy Shershen said in televised remarks that the retaken
village was located on the border of the eastern region of Donetsk and the southern region of Zaporizhzhia where Moscow has reported heavy
Ukrainian assaults over the past week.He said Ukraine's forces captured several Russian and pro-Russian troops.Big Ukrainian military
Crimean peninsula it annexed from Ukraine
This would be a major reversal for Moscow.Ukraine has largely been silent on the offensive, but Putin on Friday said Kyiv's fightback had
already begun but was already failing.Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said Saturday that Kyiv's forces had
conducted counteroffensive operations in at least four frontline areas.'Worst since Chernobyl'Kyiv reported the first gains of the
long-awaited offensive as Ukrainian officials said seven people died and 35 people were still missing due to a devastating flood prosecutors
called the "worst environmental catastrophe since Chernobyl."The Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam along the front line in the Kherson region
blowing up the dam on the Dnipro River, while Moscow says Kyiv fired upon the structure.Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that
77 towns and villages had been flooded in the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv.Klymenko said that in the Kherson region, 35 people
Mykolaiv, he said.More than 3,700 people have been evacuated from their homes in the two regions, the minister added.On Sunday, three people
authorities said.In the city of Kherson, the largest population center near the dam, the water began to subside and locals began to return
to their homes to assess the damage, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.Ukrainian rescuers in orange boats continued their efforts to
evacuate people from the city's most affected areas and nearby islands.An employee at Kherson's meteorological agency, Lora Musiyan,
said the level of water dropped by 1.7 meters from the peak measurements recorded this week.Oleksiy Gesin visited his grocery store in
central Kherson for the first time in six days
Armed with a shovel and wearing rubber boots and a jacket, he cleared up debris in the pouring rain
He said he sustained "significant" losses."The water in the store was up to my chest," he told AFP, adding that food will have to be thrown
away.'Very complicated'Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin and representatives of the International Criminal Court visited the region
of Kherson, his office said."This is the worst environmental catastrophe since Chernobyl so we are investigating not only a war crime but
also an ecocide," Kostin was quoted as saying in a statement."The situation is very complicated," he added.He noted that a number of
"dangerous" facilities including at least three cemeteries, oil storage terminals and garbage dumps have been flooded.A total of 450 tons of
turbine oil have spilled into the waters of the Dnipro and the Black Sea, he said.More than 170 prosecutors have been investigating the
