Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks throughout a joint information convention with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday.

Efrem Lukatsky/AP

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Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks throughout a joint information convention with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday.

Efrem Lukatsky/AP

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Saturday that counteroffensive and defensive actions are underway towards Russian forces, asserting that his prime commanders are in a “positive” mindset as their troops engaged in intense preventing alongside the entrance line.

The Ukrainian chief, at a Kyiv information convention alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, responded to a query about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remark a day earlier that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had began — and Ukrainian forces had been taking “significant losses.”

Zelenskyy stated that “the counteroffensive, defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine. I will not speak about which stage or phase they are in.”

“I am in touch with our commanders of different directions every day,” he added, citing the names of 5 of Ukraine’s prime army leaders. “Everyone is positive. Pass this on to Putin.”

Trudeau, the primary overseas chief to go to Ukraine since devastating floods attributable to a breach in a Dnieper River dam, provided up financial, army and ethical assist. He pledged 500 million Canadian {dollars} ($375 million) in new army assist, on prime of greater than 8 billion Canadian {dollars} ($6 billion) that Canada has already supplied because the warfare started in February 2022, and introduced 10 million Canadian {dollars} ($7.5 million) for humanitarian help for the flood response.

Trudeau stated the dam’s collapse was “a direct consequence of Russia’s war,” however he did not blame Moscow immediately.

Ukraine’s General Staff stated Saturday that “heavy battles” had been ongoing, with 34 clashes over the day past within the nation’s industrial east. It gave no particulars however stated Russian forces had been “defending themselves” and launching air and artillery strikes in Ukraine’s southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas.

Top Ukrainian authorities have stopped wanting asserting a full-blown counteroffensive was underway, although some Western analysts have stated fiercer preventing and reported use of reserve troops suggests it was. Recent Western injections of billions of {dollars}’ value of army tools — a few of it high-tech and top-of-the-line — to Ukraine has raised expectations about when it will be used, and to what impact towards dug-in Russian traces.

For months, Ukrainian commanders within the jap metropolis of Bakhmut — which was largely devastated in a months-long combat that has been one of many bloodiest battles of the warfare — have used the language of counteroffensive and defensive operations to explain the exercise there.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar stated Friday that the epicenter of the preventing has been within the east, significantly within the Donetsk area, and cited “heavy battles” in Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka.

Valerii Shershen, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces in Zaporizhzhia, advised Radio Liberty that they had been looking for weaknesses in Russia’s protection in that area, to the west.

The operator of At the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, which is occupied by Russian forces, its introduced the chilly shutdown on Thursday of the final of its 5 out of six reactors had been already in a state of chilly shutdown. That’s a course of through which all management rods are inserted into the reactor core to cease the nuclear fission response and technology of warmth and strain.

Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear company, stated in an announcement late Friday that there was “no direct threat” to the Zaporizhzhia plant because of the breach of the Kakhovka dam additional down the Dnieper River, which has forced thousands of people to flee flooding and in addition sharply lowered water ranges in a reservoir used to assist cool the ability.

Also in Zaporizhzhia, water ranges within the Kakhovka reservoir upstream from the dam, which feeds Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant, remained secure on Saturday, Ukraine’s nuclear vitality company stated. A day earlier, Energoatom stated the final of its six reactors was positioned in chilly shutdown, a course of by which all management rods are inserted into the reactor core to cease the nuclear fission response and technology of warmth and strain.

The different 5 had been in chilly shutdown already.

Energoatom stated it shut down the ultimate reactor due to the decrease water degree and due to shelling close to the positioning that has broken overhead traces connecting the plant to Ukraine’s vitality system. The Zaporizhzhia plant has been occupied by Russian forces because the warfare’s early phases, nevertheless it’s run by Ukrainian workers.

The web site’s energy items haven’t been working since September final 12 months. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is because of go to Ukraine within the coming days.

Also on Saturday morning, Ukrainian authorities reported that a minimum of 4 civilians have died throughout the nation as Russian forces launched Iranian-made Shahed drones, missiles, and artillery and mortar strikes.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that three individuals had been killed and greater than two dozen wounded in a single day in an assault focusing on the Black Sea port of Odesa. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern operational command, Natalia Humeniuk, stated two youngsters and a pregnant lady had been amongst these wounded.

In Ukraine’s northeast, a 29-year-old man was killed as greater than 10 drones focused the Kharkiv area, its governor, Oleh Syniehubov, reported Saturday. He added that a minimum of three different civilians had been wounded.

In the Poltava area additional west, there was harm to a army airfield struck in a single day throughout a Russian drone and missile assault, native Gov. Dmytro Lunin reported. Lunin stated nobody was damage. As of Saturday morning, there was no extra remark from the Ukrainian military or officers on the extent of the harm.

The Ukrainian air pressure stated that throughout the night time, it had shot down 20 out of 35 Shahed drones and two out of eight missiles “of various types” launched by Russian forces.

The preventing and civilian casualties took renewed consideration as authorities in southern Ukraine stated water ranges have been declining in an unlimited space beneath the ruptured dam.

Nearly one-third of protected pure areas within the Kherson area might be obliterated by flooding following the breach of the Kakhovka dam, the Ukrainian surroundings minister warned Saturday.

In a Facebook put up, Ruslan Strilets stated that the dam’s collapse left one nationwide park fully submerged, drained rivers and lakes in different protected areas, and will result in groundwater rising in components of the Dnieper delta occupied by Moscow, creating the danger of additional flooding.

In town of Kherson, whose outskirts had been among the many flood-hit areas, the common water degree decreased by 31 centimeters (12 inches) throughout the night time, however remained over 4.5 meters (15 toes) larger than normal, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported Saturday.

Prokudin warned that meteorologists predicted heavy rainfall within the space over the weekend, complicating rescue efforts.

The U.N.’s humanitarian assist chief, Martin Griffiths, stated in an Associated Press interview Friday that an “extraordinary” 700,000 individuals had been in want of consuming water.

In different developments:

On Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he needs to proceed talking with Putin — whose order for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been criticized by many Western leaders — and plans to take action once more “soon.” Scholz has spoken a number of instances by cellphone with Putin because the invasion.

The chancellor stated the premise for a “fair peace” between Russia and Ukraine is the withdrawal of Russian troops. “That’s needs to be understood,” he stated.

The U.Ok. authorities stated it is going to give 16 million kilos ($20 million) in humanitarian assist to these affected by the flooding. Most of the cash is being channeled via worldwide organizations such because the Red Cross and the United Nations, and the U.Ok. can also be sending boats, neighborhood water filters, water pumps and waders to Ukraine.

The U.Ok. has already given Ukraine 1.5 billion kilos in financial and humanitarian assist because the warfare started, the federal government stated, and has dedicated 4.6 billion kilos in army assist.