‘The worst is yet to come’ in Ukraine, says EU foreign policy chief

EU foreign policy Josep Borrell said Friday that “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine, suggesting that the war will intensify this summer.

Although the fighting has intensified in some areas, Borrell told Spanish broadcaster TVE that “Ukraine still hasn’t launched the counteroffensive that everyone is waiting for.”

Borrell’s comments came just days after the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine was destroyed. While Moscow has blamed Kyiv, Borrell said “everything indicates” that Russia is behind the destruction.

“The dam was destroyed with explosives installed within the turbine chamber. And it occurred in an area under Russian control … it would be difficult for it to be anyone else,” Borrell continued.

The EU’s foreign policy chief called the dam breach an enormous humanitarian and environmental catastrophe that will impact the battlefield.

“The consequences for Ukraine are terrible,” he added.

Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the blast, which destroyed part of the dam in Kherson, southern Ukraine, that supplied water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that 29 communities along the Dnipro River have flooded. The local mayor of Nova Kakhovka city, Vladimir Leontiev, told Russian media that five people were found dead.

Borrell also accused Russia of attacking civilians who had been evacuated from flooded cities.