In pictures: Ukraine's counteroffensive begins as floods devastate civilian areas

After months promising a major counteroffensive, Ukraine is finally delivering.

Kyiv's forces are engaging their adversaries in numerous crucial areas, deploying some of their newly obtained western-made equipment for the first time. All the while, sporadic attacks continue on Russian border regions, destabilising Russians' sense of safety at home.

All this occurred against the backdrop of a catastrophic dam explosion, one whose environmental and humanitarian impacts could yet rank it among the worst infrastructure disasters in modern European history.

Here are some of the best pictures of this week's events.