The Ukrainian military has reported heavy fighting in Ukraine’s east as Russian forces attempt to gain full control of the partially occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
“The adversary continues to focus its main efforts on attempts to fully occupy the Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on June 11. “Heavy fighting continues.”
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The Russian forces’ focus on the Luhansk and Donetsk regions comes as the Ukrainian military conducts a major counteroffensive aimed at retaking Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow.
On June 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged that the long-expected counteroffensive had begun.
“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine, but I will not say in detail what stage they are at,” Zelenskiy said.
During a press conference in Kyiv with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Zelenskiy was asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim earlier in the day that the counteroffensive had begun but that the Ukrainian forces had made no progress.
Zelenskiy told reporters to pass on to Putin that Ukraine’s generals were “all in a positive mood.”
Later on June 10, in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said that the fighting was heaviest on the eastern and southern fronts.
“Thank you to all those who hold their positions and those who advance,” he said.
On June 11, the Ukrainian military issued updated casualty figures that said that more than 980 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in fighting over the previous 24 hours.
The counteroffensive has been complicated by the bursting on June 6 of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River. Kyiv has accused Moscow of mining the dam and deliberately causing its destruction.
Russia, which gained control of the dam shortly after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has steadfastly rejected accusations it was behind the incident in the southern Kherson region.
On June 11, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said that Russian forces blew up the dam to limit the Ukrainian counteroffensive and to make Kyiv divert its forces to deal with the resulting ecological and humanitarian crisis.
“The explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was apparently carried out with the intention of preventing the Ukrainian Defense Forces from launching an offensive in the Kherson sector,” Malyar wrote on Telegram.
Malyar added that the destruction of the dam was also intended to allow Russian reserves in the region to be deployed to reinforce the areas of Zaporizhzhya and Bakhmut.
While information on the counteroffensive is limited, there have been reports of losses on both sides.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said on June 10 that Ukrainian forces had advanced more than a kilometer at a number of points along the front line near Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk region that Russian and Ukrainian forces fought over for months before Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group gained control of most of the city in May.
On June 11, the Ukrainian Land Forces claimed that one of its brigades had liberated the village of Blahodatne, located between Mariupol and Donetsk in the Donetsk region. It published a video on Facebook showing Ukrainian soldiers planting a Ukrainian flag in the window of a damaged building in the village.
“The invaders resisted to the last, but could not withstand the onslaught of unrestrained wolverines!” the Land Forces wrote.
RFE/RL was unable to independently verify the claim.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War has said that the Ukrainian armed forces appear to have also made some gains in their offensive in the Zaporizhzhya region in the south.
The Russian military has said it successfully repelled attacks in both areas. The Russian Defense Ministry has released video footage in recent days showing what it said were numerous strikes on Ukrainian armored vehicles and tanks, including German Leopard 2 tanks and U.S. Bradley fighting vehicles.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu awarded medals on June 11 to soldiers it said had destroyed the foreign weaponry donated to Kyiv.
A UN official warned on June 10 of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the dam breach and resulting flooding.
UN Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths told AP that an “extraordinary” 700,000 people are in need of drinking water and said that the crisis will likely lead to lower grain exports, higher food prices around the world, and less to eat for millions in need. “The truth is this is only the beginning of seeing the consequences of this act,” Griffiths said.
On June 11, the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence assessment that the destruction of the dam “has almost certainly severely disrupted” the primary source of fresh water to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
Water at the dam’s reservoir had likely dropped below the inlet that feeds water to the canal delivering water to the peninsula, according to the assessment. Water is expected to stop flowing in the canal as a result, reducing the availability of fresh water in the south of the Kherson region and in northern Crimea.
The operators of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station reported on June 11 that water levels in the dam’s reservoir have dropped 9.35 meters since the dam burst last week.
On June 10, Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency put the last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which is cooled by water from the reservoir, into “cold shutdown” as a safety precaution.
The British Defense Ministry said that it expected the Russian authorities to meet civilians’ water needs by using reservoirs, water rationing, drilling new wells, and bottled water.
It said that communities on both sides of the Dnieper face a sanitation crisis, limited access to safe water, and an increased risk of water-borne diseases.
Rescue efforts continued on June 11, with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry saying that 35 people, including seven children, remain unaccounted for in the Kherson region. Five people in Kherson and one person in the region of Mykolayiv have died as a result of the floods.
The Ukrainian authorities said that 32 towns and villages on the west bank of the Dnieper controlled by Ukrainian forces are still under water.
Evacuation efforts were also reported on the eastern bank of the river, which is more vulnerable to flooding.
Each side has accused the other of shelling civilians during the rescue efforts.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Current Time, Reuters, AP, and dpa.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was higher in late-morning trading, helped by strength in energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved up.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 34.91 points at 23,736.98.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 178.05 points at 41,800.13. The S&P 500 index was up 28.38 points at 5,661.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 133.17 points at 17,725.30.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.56 cents US compared with 73.57 cents US on Monday.
The November crude oil contract was up 68 cents at US$69.70 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$7.80 at US$2,601.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.28 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Canada’s inflation rate fell to two per cent last month, finally hitting the Bank of Canada’s target after a tumultuous battle with skyrocketing price growth.
The annual inflation rate fell from 2.5 per cent in July to reach the lowest level since February 2021.
Statistics Canada’s consumer price index report on Tuesday attributed the slowdown in part to lower gasoline prices.
Clothing and footwear prices also decreased on a month-over-month basis, marking the first decline in the month of August since 1971 as retailers offered larger discounts to entice shoppers amid slowing demand.
The Bank of Canada’s preferred core measures of inflation, which strip out volatility in prices, also edged down in August.
The marked slowdown in price growth last month was steeper than the 2.1 per cent annual increase forecasters were expecting ahead of Tuesday’s release and will likely spark speculation of a larger interest rate cut next month from the Bank of Canada.
“Inflation remains unthreatening and the Bank of Canada should now focus on trying to stimulate the economy and halting the upward climb in the unemployment rate,” wrote CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham.
Benjamin Reitzes, managing director of Canadian rates and macro strategist at BMO, said Tuesday’s figures “tilt the scales” slightly in favour of more aggressive cuts, though he noted the Bank of Canada will have one more inflation reading before its October rate announcement.
“If we get another big downside surprise, calls for a 50 basis-point cut will only grow louder,” wrote Reitzes in a client note.
The central bank began rapidly hiking interest rates in March 2022 in response to runaway inflation, which peaked at a whopping 8.1 per cent that summer.
The central bank increased its key lending rate to five per cent and held it at that level until June 2024, when it delivered its first rate cut in four years.
A combination of recovered global supply chains and high interest rates have helped cool price growth in Canada and around the world.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem recently signalled that the central bank is ready to increase the size of its interest rate cuts, if inflation or the economy slow by more than expected.
Its key lending rate currently stands at 4.25 per cent.
CIBC is forecasting the central bank will cut its key rate by two percentage points between now and the middle of next year.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected on Wednesday to deliver its first interest rate cut in four years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
