Latest developments:
- The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with water pump installations and rescue boats for emergency assistance following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday.
- Belgium will send 105 mm artillery rounds worth $35 million to Ukraine as soon as possible, a spokesperson for Belgium's defense ministry said Friday. Belgium has provided $329 million in lethal and nonlethal military support to Ukraine.
- At least 14 are dead and more are missing from a massive flood caused by Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam breach, the Ukraine Ministry of Interior said Friday.
- Ancient Crimean gold artifacts that were on display abroad will be returned to Ukraine and not to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The Pentagon announced Friday a new $2.1 billion assistance package for Ukraine that it said includes critical air defense and ammunition capabilities.
The package includes HAWK air defense systems and missiles, 105 mm and 203 mm artillery rounds, Puma unmanned aerial systems, laser-guided rocket system munitions, and support for training and maintenance, the Defense Department said in a statement.
According to the department, since the beginning of the Russian offensive, the U.S. has committed more than $40.4 billion is security assistance to Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Biden administration and Congress have provided more than $75 billion in humanitarian, financial and military support to Ukraine. This is the first time a European country has held the top spot in U.S. foreign aid since the Truman administration’s Marshall Plan after World War II, the Council on Foreign Relations said.
Kakhovka dam explosion
Clear signals of an explosion occurred at the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine early Tuesday morning, Norwegian seismic research foundation Norsar said Friday.
Earlier in the day, a U.S. official told The New York Times that American spy satellites equipped with infrared sensors detected an explosion at the Kakhovka dam just before it collapsed, unleashing a torrent of floodwater into surrounding areas this week.
The official said that satellites had detected a heat signature consistent with a major explosion, the official told the newspaper.
The AP flew a drone over the dam Wednesday and reported that there were no signs of an attack from above and “no scorch marks or shrapnel scars” visible on buildings above the flooding that would be “typical of a bombardment,” which Russia accuses Ukraine of having carried out.
Russians and Ukrainians trade blame for the destruction of the dam.
The vast Soviet-era dam, under Russian control, collapsed early Tuesday, unleashing floodwaters across a swath of the war zone. Officials said more than 6,000 people have been evacuated from dozens of inundated cities, towns and villages on both sides of the river. But the true scale of the disaster remains unclear for a region that was once home to tens of thousands of people. At least 14 people have died in the flooding, many are homeless and tens of thousands are without drinking water.
Iranian drones
The White House said Friday that Russia seemed to be deepening its defense partnership with Iran and that it had received hundreds of one-way attack drones it's been using to hit Ukraine.
Citing newly declassified information, the White House said the drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine.
“We have information that Russia is receiving materials from Iran needed to build a UAV manufacturing plant inside Russia,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby in a statement sent to VOA Thursday. “This plant could be fully operational early next year.”
The White House released satellite imagery of the planned location of the UAV manufacturing plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone.
Crimean treasures
Ancient Crimean gold artifacts that were on display abroad will be returned to Ukraine and not to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled Friday, ending a long, bitter tussle over the treasures.
More than a thousand ancient objects, including a solid gold Scythian helmet and a golden neck ornament, were on loan to Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum when Moscow occupied the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
"This decision ends this dispute. The Allard Pierson Museum must return these artistic treasures to the state of Ukraine and not to the museums in Crimea," Friday's ruling said, upholding the decision of a lower court in 2021.
In a tweet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the planned return of the "Scythian gold" and called the ruling an example of Dutch "leadership in the protection of international law."
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
