TOP HEADLINES

• The southern reach of the Dnipro river is likely to return to its original levels by June 16 following a vast flood unleashed by the breach of Ukraine's Kakhovka dam this week, a local official in the Russian-controlled territory said. READ MORE BELOW

• The UK's government on Saturday described mixed progress for Ukrainian and Russian forces fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine over the past 48 hours.

• UK Defence Ministry says Russia has been unusually active over southern Ukraine but that it's too soon to say whether tactical air strikes have been effective.

• The White House said on Friday that Russia appeared to be deepening its defense cooperation with Iran and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it is using to strike Ukraine.

• Three civilians were killed during a Russian drone attack on the Black Sea city of Odesa in the early hours of Saturday after drone debris fell on an apartment block starting a fire, the Ukrainian military said.

IN DEPTH

Flood waters expected to recede by June 16

The southern reach of the Dnipro river is likely to return to its banks by June 16 following a vast flood unleashed by the breach of Ukraine's Kakhovka dam this week, an official in the Russian-controlled part of the region said on Saturday.

The flood has poured into towns and villages below the dam, trapping residents and sweeping away entire houses on both sides of the Dnipro, which separates Ukrainian-controlled Kherson province from the southern section that Russian forces control.

Vladimir Saldo, who heads the Russian-controlled part, said the water level at Nova Kakhovka, the town adjacent to the dam on the downstream side, had now dropped by 3 meters (10 feet) from Tuesday's peak.

"The pumping of water and garbage collection from the streets have started," he said, adding that more than 6,000 people had now been evacuated from the flooded districts of Nova Kakhovka and from Oleshky and Hola Prystan, at the mouth of the river.

He said preliminary calculations by the Russian hydroelectricity producer RusHydro indicated the Dnipro would return to its usual course below the now-destroyed Kakhovka power station by June 16.

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