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20 missiles shot down over Kyiv’s airspace, official says

Kyiv city’s military administration said Thursday that 20 missiles of various types had been detected in Kyiv’s airspace this morning but that all “aerial targets were destroyed” thanks to air defense units.

A 55-year-old man died as a result of the fall of rocket parts, and two others were injured and hospitalized.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, added that the air alert is continuing due to the take-off of a “potential carrier of Kinzhal missiles – a MiG-31 fighter jet and an A-50 control plane in Belarus.”

“Stay in shelters until the alarm is over,” Popko warned.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian strikes on Odesa a response to UNESCO decision, official says

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Thursday that Russia’s missile strike on the southern port city was President Vladimir Putin’s response to UNESCO’s decision to the put the city on its list of endangered World Heritage sites.

The World Heritage Committee at UNESCO, the United Nation’s cultural agency, decided to inscribe the historic center of Odesa on the World Heritage List on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian state flag flies on a pedestal where the monument to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, also known as Monument to the founders of Odesa, once stood on Jan. 8, 2023 in Odesa, Ukraine.

Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images News | Getty Images

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said Odesa was “a free city, a world city, a legendary port that has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts” and thus had been “placed under the reinforced protection of the international community.”

“While the war continues, this inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always surmounted global upheavals, is preserved from further destruction.”

— Holly Ellyatt

One dead, two injured in Russian missile strikes on Kyiv

After missile strikes targeting Ukraine’s capital city Thursday morning, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person is known to have died and two others injured.

“As a result of a rocket hit into a non-residential building in the Holosiivskyi district, there is currently information about one dead and two injured. The injured were hospitalized by medics,” he said on Telegram.

There have also been updates from the cities of Odesa and Vinnytsia, to the southwest of Kyiv, with reports of damage to critical energy facilities.

Civilians take shelter inside a metro station during air raid alert in the centre of Kyiv on December 13, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Dimitar Dilkoff | Afp | Getty Images

Yuri Kruk, head of the Odesa District Military Administration, said on Telegram Thursday that Russian forces continued “to fire missiles at the territory of Ukraine from the sky and the sea.”

“There is already information about damages to 2 critical energy infrastructure facilities in Odesa. There are no casualties,” he said, asking civilians to remain in shelters.

In Vinnytsia, the head of the regional military administration Serhiy Borzov posted onTelegram that “there are hits of the enemy’s missiles in Vinnytsia [region]. There are no casualties. All operative services work on site.”

— Holly Ellyatt

After tanks decision, Russia lashes out with missile strikes

Air raid warnings are sounding out across Ukraine on Thursday morning as the country braced itself for more missile strikes from Russia. Emergency power outages have been introduced in Kyiv city and the wider region as well as Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr while the threat of missile strikes is live.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that there had been explosions in a part of the city as he warned civilians to shelter while Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, commented earlier on Telegram that Russian forces had “launched more than 15 cruise missiles in the direction of Kyiv.”

Popko said that “thanks to the excellent work of the air defense, all air targets were shot down.” He warned that the danger of air strikes had not passed, however.

A resident of Kyiv uses the subway as a bomb shelter on Dec. 5, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

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Emergency blackouts had been introduced in the city Thursday, with the city’s military administration saying “the reason is the threat of a missile attack. Early power outages will help avoid potential damage to critical infrastructure facilities.”

Moscow is fuming after Ukraine was given a big boost by its allies Wednesday after the U.S. and Germany agreed to send battle tanks to the country for the first time. Russia reacted angrily, with officials saying it was “extremely dangerous” and crossed “red lines.”

Serhii Bratchuk, the press person the head for the Odessa RMA (regional military administration) said earlier this morning that “around six Tu-95 aircrafts (preliminary from the Murmansk region) took off and fired missiles at the port city. We expect more than 30 rockets, which have already begun to appear in several areas. Air defense is working, there is no information about drones yet,” Bratchuk said.

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the reports.

— Holly Ellyatt

Japan’s Prime Minister to consider visit to Ukraine: Kyodo News

Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida speaks at the start of the tenth annual review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at U.N. headquarters on August 01, 2022 in New York City. Japan’s average minimum wage is set to rise at a record pace this year, the government said on Tuesday, a positive development for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s efforts to cushion households from global commodity inflation.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a parliamentary session that he would consider visiting Ukrainian capital Kyiv, depending on “various circumstances,” Kyodo News reported.

“Nothing has been decided at this point, but we will consider,” Kishida was quoted as saying.

The prime minister’s response came after a ruling party lawmaker urged him to follow the leaders of allied countries in the Group of Seven, as Japan prepares to host an upcoming G7 summit in Hiroshima in May.

– Jihye Lee

After tanks, fighter jets? Ukraine pushes NATO allies for more weaponry

A Belgian F-16 fighter jet flies over Florennes Military Air Base, in Florennes, Belgium. Ukraine is believed to be keen on receiving combat aircraft like this from its allies.

Geert Vanden Wijngaert | AP

The dust has barely settled after the U.S. and Germany’s momentous decision on Wednesday but talk has already turned to the possible supply of other weaponry to Ukraine, specifically combat aircraft.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to Kyiv’s allies Wednesday, stating that the decision by the United States, Germany and Britain to send tanks to Ukraine was “historic.” He said he had also spoken to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday and during that call he called for more assistance.

“We have to unlock the supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine, it is important for us to expand our cooperation in artillery, we have to achieve the supply of aircraft to Ukraine. And this is a dream. And this is a task. An important task for all of us,” he said in his nightly address.

Ukraine has made no secret of the fact that it would like to receive fighter jets, such as the U.S.’ F-16s, from its allies to help it fight Russia, but there has been little positive response.

Having just achieved a diplomatic victory in achieving tanks, however, the focus is now on practical matters, with Zelenskyy saying just how many tanks Ukraine would be receiving is a key issue.

“The key thing now is speed and volume. The speed of training of our military, the speed of supplying tanks to Ukraine and the volume of tank support,” he said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Training for Abrams tanks will take place outside of Ukraine, White House says

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (L) listens as National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 1, 2022.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon’s upcoming training for Ukrainians using the M1A1 Abrams tanks will take place outside of Ukraine.

Kirby said the U.S. has not yet decided on a specific location or timing for the training.

He also said that the Pentagon does not have extra tanks to pull from its current arsenal to provide for Ukraine.

“We just don’t have them,” Kirby said, adding that “even if there were excess tanks it would still take many months anyway.” He also declined to provide a timeline of when the M1A1 Abrams tanks would be ready for Ukrainian forces.

— Amanda Macias

Zelenskyy thanks Biden for Abrams tanks decision

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for his decision to provide Kyiv with 31 Abrams tanks as well as training and maintenance support.

Zelenskyy said the transfer of M1A1 Abrams tanks is, “an important step on the path to victory.”

“Today the free world is united as never before for a common goal – liberation of Ukraine,” he added.

— Amanda Macias

State Department denies reports outlining riff between Washington and Berlin over tanks for Ukraine

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing on Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, August 16, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The State Department downplayed reports that Germany and the U.S. were at odds over whether to provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 and M1A1 Abrams tanks.

“Time and again, Germany has proven itself as a stalwart ally of the United States,” Price said, adding that Berlin and Washington have only had constructive discussions in the weeks leading up to the separate security assistance announcements.

Earlier on Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Berlin would provide Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.

Germany said its goal was to “quickly assemble two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine.” The country will supply 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks in what it called a “first step.”

— Amanda Macias

U.S. will send Abrams tanks to Ukraine ahead of expected Russian offensive

A M1A2 SEP (V2) Abrams Main Battle Tank being unloaded in

Staff Sgt. Grady Jones | U.S. Army | Flickr CC

The Biden administration said it will equip Ukraine with the mighty M1A1 Abrams tank, a key reversal in the West’s effort to arm Kyiv as it prepares for a fresh Russian offensive.

The 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks, which amount to one Ukrainian tank battalion, will expand on the more than $26 billion the U.S. has committed to Kyiv’s fight since Russia invaded nearly a year ago.

The U.S. plans to purchase the new M1s using funds from the congressionally approved Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

It will “take some time” for the tanks to be delivered to Ukraine, a senior Biden administration official said Wednesday. “We are talking months as opposed to weeks,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

Russia furious that Western tanks will be given to Ukraine

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks on the phone during a conversation with Agatha Bylkova from the Kurgan region, an 8-year-old participant of a New Year’s and Christmas charity event, in Moscow, Russia, January 3, 2023. 

Mikhail Klimentyev | Sputnik | Via Reuters

Russia expressed mounting fury at the prospect of modern Western tanks being sent to Ukraine, calling it “extremely dangerous” and saying previous “red lines” were now a thing of the past.

Germany announced earlier Wednesday that it was ready to send 14 Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, and to allow other countries to send their own German-made tanks to Kyiv. The U.S. is also expected to announce imminently its own intention to send Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

The Russian Embassy in Berlin called the German government’s decision “extremely dangerous” and said it “takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation” while the foreign ministry warned that “red lines” were a “thing of the past” as it slammed what is saw as the West waging a “hybrid war” against Russia.

The use of modern Western tanks by Ukraine is likely to add momentum to its efforts to push Russian forces out of occupied areas of the country, particularly the eastern Donbas region, but Russia sees the gift of tanks as further evidence that the West is fighting what it sees as a proxy war against it in Ukraine.

Read more on the story here.

— Holly Ellyatt

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Trust between the West and Russia has been destroyed, NATO chief says

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North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during the plenary session of the third day of the 68th Annual Session of the Parliamentary Assembly in the Auditorium Ground Floor Room at the Hotel Melia Castilla, Nov. 21, 2022, in Madrid, Spain.

Alberta Ortego | Europa Press | Getty Images

The West has tried to build bridges with Russia since the end of the Cold War but any trust that was established in recent years has been destroyed with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO Director-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.

“NATO strived for decades to develop a better, more constructive relationship with Russia,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in Brussels.

“After the end of the Cold War we established institutions [like the] NATO-Russia Council, when I was prime minister of Norway I remember that President Putin attended NATO summits … so this was a different time when we worked for a better relationship. Russia has walked away from all of this,” he said.

Stoltenberg said a level of trust that had been established during a rapprochement between Western nations and Russia in recent decades had been destroyed by Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine.

“Even if the fighting ends, we will not return to some kind of normal, friendly, relationship with Russia. Trust has been destroyed,” he said. “I think the war has had long-lasting consequences for the relationship with Russia.”

Stoltenberg’s comments come as the war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing down over the winter period, despite expectations among some Western analysts that both Ukraine and Russia could look for a lull in the fighting to regroup before launching renewed counter-offensives in the spring.

That doesn’t appear to be the case, however, with fighting intense in eastern Ukraine and missile and drone strikes continuing to harass Ukrainian villages towns and cities in the south and east of the country.

Russia continues to pound Ukraine’s energy infrastructure too with devastating consequences for civilians; drone strikes on Saturday left 1.5 million people in the port city of Odesa without power, for example.

Russia President Vladimir Putin signaled last week that he was in it for the long-haul, saying the so-called “special military operation” could be a “lengthy process.” Russia insists that its aim is to “liberate” regions (Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south) that it unilaterally and illegally “annexed” after coercive referendums on whether to join Russia.

Ukraine has also showed no signs of letting-up, particularly as it tries to build on momentum that has allowed it to liberate chunks of Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south and to make advances in the east — although the war there, particularly in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, is seen as hellish for both sides with both forces dug into networks of trenches that now stretch across a devastated landscape reminiscent of World War I.

Stoltenberg insisted that the war could stop at any moment if Russia chose to end hostilities.

“They [Russia] can do as many other European countries have done since the end of the Second World War, they can choose peace, choose cooperation, choose to trust their neighbors instead of always being so aggressive and threatening neighbors as Russia has done again and again against Georgia, against Ukraine.”

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NATO chief fears Ukraine war could become a wider conflict

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of NATO expressed worry that the fighting in Ukraine could spin out of control and become a war between Russia and NATO, according to an interview released Friday.

“If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in remarks to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

“It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia,” he said. “We are working on that every day to avoid that.”

Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said in the interview that “there is no doubt that a full-fledged war is a possibility,” adding that it was important to avoid a conflict “that involves more countries in Europe and becomes a full-fledged war in Europe.”

The Kremlin has repeatedly accused NATO allies of effectively becoming a party to the conflict by providing Ukraine with weapons, training its troops and feeding military intelligence to attack Russian forces.

In comments that reflected soaring tensions between Russia and the West, President Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow might think about using what he described as the U.S. concept of a preemptive strike.

“Speaking about a disarming strike, maybe it’s worth thinking about adopting the ideas developed by our U.S. counterparts, their ideas of ensuring their security,” he said.

Long before the Ukraine war, the Kremlin expressed concern about U.S. efforts to develop the so-called Prompt Global Strike capability that envisions hitting an adversary’s strategic targets with precision-guided conventional weapons anywhere in the world within one hour.

Putin noted that such a strike could knock out command facilities.

“We are just thinking about it, they weren’t shy to openly talk about it during the past years,” he said, claiming that Moscow’s precision-guided cruise missiles outperform similar U.S. weapons and Russia has hypersonic weapons that the U.S. hasn’t deployed.

Putin also said he was disappointed with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent comments that a 2015 peace deal for eastern Ukraine negotiated by France and Germany had bought time for Ukraine to prepare for the 2022 war.

“I assumed that other participants of the process were sincere with us, but it turned out that they were cheating us,” he said. “It turned out that they wanted to pump Ukraine with weapons and prepare for hostilities.”

Putin argued that Merkel’s statement showed that Russia was right in launching what he calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine. “Perhaps we should have started it earlier,” he said.

He also said her comments further eroded Russia’s trust in the West, complicating any possible peace talks.

“Eventually we will have to negotiate an agreement,” he said. “But after such statements there is an issue of trust. Trust is close to zero. I repeatedly have said that we are ready for an agreement, but it makes us think, think about whom we are dealing with.”

In separate comments via video link to defense and security chiefs of several ex-Soviet nations, Putin again accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool against his country.

“For many years, the West shamelessly exploited and pumped out its resources, encouraged genocide and terror in the Donbas and effectively turned the country into a colony,” he said. “Now it’s cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, as a ram against Russia by continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, sending mercenaries and pushing it to a suicidal track.”

Ukrainians say they are fighting for freedom against an unwanted invader and aggressor.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone Friday and both “agreed on the importance of preempting Russia’s insincere calls for a cease-fire,” Sunak’s office said. “The prime minister added that the Kremlin needed to withdraw its forces before any agreement could be considered.”

Heavy fighting continued Friday in eastern and southern Ukraine, mostly in regions that Russia illegally annexed in September.

Ukraine’s presidential office said five civilians have been killed and another 13 have been wounded by Russian shelling in the last 24 hours.

Donetsk regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said the Russians were pressing an offensive on Bakhmut with daily attacks, despite taking heavy casualties.

“You can best describe those attacks as cannon fodder,” Kyrylenko said in televised remarks. “They are mostly relying on infantry and less on armor, and they can’t advance.”

In neighboring Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, regional Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Ukrainian military was pushing its counteroffensive toward Kreminna and Svatove.

He voiced hope Ukraine can reclaim control of Kreminna by year’s end, and then by the end of winter reclaim areas in the region that were captured by Russia since the war began.

In the south, Kherson regional Gov. Yaroslav Yanyshevych said eight civilians were wounded by Russian shelling in the last 24 hours, and in the city of Kherson that Ukraine retook last month, a children’s hospital and a morgue were damaged.

In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces shelled Nikopol and Chervonohryhorivka, which are across the Dnieper River from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Zaporizhzhia Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said Russian shelling damaged residential buildings and power lines.

In the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said three civilians were wounded by Russian shelling, with one later dying.

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Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Jill Lawless in London contributed.

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Poland, NATO say missile strike wasn’t a Russian attack

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PRZEWODOW, Poland (AP) — NATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday that a missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two people appeared to be unintentional and was probably launched by air defenses in neighboring Ukraine. Russia had been bombarding Ukraine at the time in an attack that savaged its power grid.

“Ukraine’s defense was launching their missiles in various directions, and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the 30-nation military alliance in Brussels, echoed the preliminary Polish findings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, disputed them and asked for further investigation.

The assessments of Tuesday’s deadly missile landing appeared to dial back the likelihood of the strike triggering another major escalation in the nearly 9-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Russia had targeted Poland, that could have risked drawing NATO into the conflict.

Still, Stoltenberg and others laid overall but not specific blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.

“This is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility,” Stoltenberg said.

Zelenskyy told reporters he had “no doubts” about a report he received from his top commanders “that it wasn’t our missile or our missile strike.” Ukrainian officials should have access to the site and take part in the investigation, he added.

“Let’s say openly, if, God forbid, some remnant (of Ukraine’s air-defenses) killed a person, these people, then we need to apologize,” he said. “But first there needs to be a probe, access — we want to get the data you have.”

On Tuesday, he called the strike “a very significant escalation.”

Before the Polish and NATO assessments, U.S. President Joe Biden had said it was “unlikely” that Russia fired the missile but added: “I’m going to make sure we find out exactly what happened.”

A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman in Moscow said no Russian strike Tuesday was closer than 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Ukraine-Poland border. The Kremlin denounced Poland’s and other countries’ initial response and, in rare praise for a U.S. leader, hailed Biden’s “restrained, much more professional reaction.”

“We have witnessed another hysterical, frenzied, Russo-phobic reaction that was not based on any real data,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Later Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Polish ambassador in Moscow; the discussion reportedly lasted about 20 minutes.

The Polish president said the missile was probably a Russian-made S-300 dating from the Soviet era. Ukraine, once part of the Soviet Union, fields Soviet- and Russian-made weaponry and has also seized many more Russian weapons while beating back the Kremlin’s invasion forces.

Russia’s assault on power generation and transmission facilities Tuesday included Ukraine’s western region bordering Poland. Ukraine’s military said 77 of the more than 90 missiles fired were brought down by air defenses, along with 11 drones.

The countrywide bombardment by cruise missiles and exploding drones clouded the initial picture of what happened in Poland.

“It was a huge blast, the sound was terrifying.” said Ewa Byra, the primary school director in the eastern village of Przewodow, where the missile struck. She said she knew both men who were killed — one was the husband of a school employee, the other the father of a former pupil.

Another resident, 24-year-old Kinga Kancir, said the men worked at a grain-drying facility.

“It is very hard to accept,” she said. “Nothing was going on and, all of a sudden, there is a world sensation.”

In Europe, NATO members called for a thorough investigation and criticized Moscow.

“This wouldn’t have happened without the Russian war against Ukraine, without the missiles that are now being fired at Ukrainian infrastructure intensively and on a large scale,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Swaths of Ukraine were without power after the aerial assault. Zelenskyy said about 10 million people lost electricity, but tweeted overnight that 8 million were subsequently reconnected. Previous strikes had already destroyed an estimated 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure.

Ukraine said the bombardment was the largest on its power grid so far.

A Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said Ukraine’s downing of so many Russian missiles Tuesday “illustrates the improvement in Ukrainian air defenses in the last month,” which are being bolstered with Western-supplied systems. Sweden said Wednesday that an air defense system with ammunition would form part of its latest and largest package of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, worth $360 million.

The U.S. has been Ukraine’s largest supporter, providing $18.6 billion in weapons and equipment. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the flow of weapons and assistance would continue “throughout the winter so that Ukraine can continue to consolidate gains and seize the initiative on the battlefield.”

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he tried to speak to his Russian counterpart Wednesday, but those efforts were not successful. Milley didn’t elaborate on the efforts, but the lack of a conversation, at a time when there were questions about whether Russia had struck a NATO ally, raises concerns about high-level U.S.-Russian communications in a crisis.

At the United Nations, the organization’s political chief said the missile strike in Poland was “a frightening reminder” of the need to prevent any more escalation of the war.

As long as the fighting continues, Rosemary DiCarlo warned the U.N. Security Council, “the risks of potentially catastrophic spillover remain all too real.”

The Russian attacks followed days of euphoria in Ukraine sparked by one of its biggest military successes — the retaking last week of the southern city of Kherson.

With its battlefield losses mounting, Russia has increasingly resorted to targeting Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches.

Russian attacks in the previous 24 hours killed at least six civilians and wounded another 17, a senior official, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said Wednesday.

Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy said two of three Russian missiles hit critical energy infrastructure in the western province. Power was restored to about 95% of the province, he said, but only 30% of consumers can use electricity at the same time.

Power shortages caused extensive train delays extending into Wednesday, but there were no cancellations because diesel locomotives were pressed into service, rail officials said.

Kyiv resident Margina Daria said Tuesday’s strikes knocked out cellphone service in her area.

“We have already adapted to life without light, because we have scheduled outages every day, but without communication it was quite disturbing,” she said. “There was no way to even tell our families that we were OK.”

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AP journalists Vanessa Gera and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw; Lorne Cook in Brussels; John Leicester in Kyiv, Ukraine; Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia; Zeke Miller in Nusa Dua, Indonesia; Michael Balsamo and Lolita Baldor in Washington; Elise Morton in London; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; and James LaPorta in Wilmington, North Carolina, contributed.

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Poland: Russian-made missile fell on our country, killing 2

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Poland said early Wednesday that a Russian-made missile fell in the eastern part of the country, killing two people in a blast that marked the first time since the invasion of Ukraine that Russian weapons came down on a NATO country.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy decried the strike as “a very significant escalation” of the war.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the government was investigating and raising its military preparedness.

A statement from the Polish Foreign Ministry identified the missile as being made in Russia. But President Andrzej Duda was more cautious about its origin, saying that officials did not know for sure who fired it or where it was made. He said it was “most probably” Russian-made but that is being still verified.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called an emergency meeting of the alliance’s envoys to discuss the events close to the Ukrainian border in Poland.

Poland’s statement did not address the circumstances of the strike, including whether it could have been a targeting error or if the missile could have been knocked off course by Ukrainian missile defenses.

If Russia had deliberately targeted Poland, it would risk drawing the 30-nation alliance into the conflict at a time when it is already struggling to fend off Ukrainian forces.

Polish media reported that the strike took place in an area where grain was drying in Przewodów, a village near the border with Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry denied being behind “any strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish border” and said in a statement that photos of purported damage “have nothing to do” with Russian weapons.

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau summoned the Russian ambassador and “demanded immediate detailed explanations,” the government said.

On Tuesday, Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy facilities with its biggest barrage of missiles yet, striking targets across the country and causing widespread blackouts.

The barrage also affected neighboring Moldova. It reported massive power outages after the strikes knocked out a key power line that supplies the small nation, an official said.

The missile strikes plunged much of Ukraine into darkness and drew defiance from Zelenskyy, who shook his fist and declared: “We will survive everything.”

In his nightly address, the Ukrainian leader said the strike in Poland offered proof that “terror is not limited by our state borders.”

“We need to put the terrorist in its place. The longer Russia feels impunity, the more threats there will be for everyone within the reach of Russian missiles,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia fired at least 85 missiles, most of them aimed at the country’s power facilities, and blacked out many cities, he said.

The Ukrainian energy minister said the attack was “the most massive” bombardment of power facilities in the nearly 9-month-old Russian invasion, striking both power generation and transmission systems.

The minister, Herman Haluschenko, accused Russia of “trying to cause maximum damage to our energy system on the eve of winter.”

The aerial assault, which resulted in at least one death in a residential building in the capital, Kyiv, followed days of euphoria in Ukraine sparked by one of its biggest military successes — the retaking last week of the southern city of Kherson.

The power grid was already battered by previous attacks that destroyed an estimated 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy said the number of Ukrainians without power had fallen from 10 million to 2 million by Tuesday evening.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the retreat from Kherson since his troops pulled out in the face of a Ukrainian offensive. But the stunning scale of Tuesday’s strikes spoke volumes and hinted at anger in the Kremlin.

By striking targets in the late afternoon, not long before dusk began to fall, the Russian military forced rescue workers to labor in the dark and gave repair crews scant time to assess the damage by daylight.

More than a dozen regions — among them Lviv in the west, Kharkiv in the northeast and others in between — reported strikes or efforts by their air defenses to shoot missiles down. At least a dozen regions reported power outages, affecting cities that together have millions of people. Almost half of the Kyiv region lost power, authorities said.

Zelenskyy warned that more strikes were possible and urged people to stay safe and seek shelter.

“Most of the hits were recorded in the center and in the north of the country. In the capital, the situation is very difficult,” said a senior official, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

He said a total of 15 energy targets were damaged and claimed that 70 missiles were shot down. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said Russia used X-101 and X-555 cruise missiles.

As city after city reported attacks, Tymoshenko urged Ukrainians to “hang in there.”

With its battlefield losses mounting, Russia has increasingly resorted to targeting Ukraine’s power grid, seemingly hoping to turn the approach of winter into a weapon by leaving people in the cold and dark.

Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra took to a bomb shelter in Kyiv after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart and, from his place of safety, described the bombardment as “an enormous motivation to keep standing shoulder-to-shoulder” with Ukraine.

The strikes came as authorities were already working furiously to get Kherson back on its feet and beginning to investigate alleged Russian abuses there and in the surrounding area.

The southern city is without power and water, and the head of the U.N. human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday decried a “dire humanitarian situation” there.

Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner said her teams are looking to travel to Kherson to try to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of forced disappearances and arbitrary detention.

The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Igor Klymenko, said authorities are to start investigating reports from Kherson residents that Russian forces set up at least three alleged torture sites in now-liberated parts of the wider Kherson region.

The retaking of Kherson dealt another stinging blow to the Kremlin. Zelenskyy likened the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II, saying both were watershed events on the road to eventual victory.

But large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine remain under Russian control, and fighting continues.

In other developments, leaders of most of the world’s economic powers were drawing closer to approval of a declaration strongly denouncing Russia’s invasion.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden and Zelenskyy pressed fellow G20 leaders at the summit in Indonesia for a robust condemnation of Russia’s nuclear threats and food embargoes. More discussion and a possible vote come Wednesday.

___

Associated Press writers Joanna Kozlowska in London; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Hanna Arhirova in Kherson, Ukraine; Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia; Vanessa Gera and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland; Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels; and Nomaan Merchant in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Don’t let Russia win, NATO chief warns US – POLITICO

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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has a message for U.S. Republicans making election promises to slash Ukraine’s support: That will only empower China.

Stoltenberg pushed his point in an expansive interview with POLITICO this week, in which the military alliance’s chief made the case for a long-term American presence in Europe and a widespread boost in defense spending. 

“The presence of the United States — but also Canada — in Europe, is essential for the strength and the credibility of that transatlantic bond,” Stoltenberg said. 

Yet anxiety is coursing through policy circles that a more reticent U.S. may be on the horizon. The upcoming U.S. midterm elections could tip control of Congress toward the Republicans, empowering an ascendant, MAGA-friendly Republican cohort that has been pressing to cut back U.S. President Joe Biden’s world-leading military aid to Ukraine.

Stoltenberg warned that Kyiv’s recent battlefield gains would not have been possible without NATO allies’ support. And he appealed to the more strident anti-China sentiment that runs through both major U.S. political parties.

A victorious Russia, he said, would “be bad for all of us in Europe and North America, in the whole of NATO, because that will send a message to authoritarian leaders — not only Putin but also China — that by the use of brutal military force they can achieve their goals.” 

Stoltenberg, however, expressed optimism that the U.S. would not soon vanish from Europe — or from Ukraine. Indeed, a contingent of more establishment Republicans has supported Biden’s repeated requests to send money and arms to Ukraine. 

“I’m confident,” the NATO chief said, “that also after midterms, there will still be a clear majority in the Congress — in the House and in the Senate — for continued significant support to Ukraine.” 

Difficult decisions ahead

The charged debate is the product of a troubling reality: Russia’s war in Ukraine appears likely to drag on for months as budgets tighten and economies wane.  

In Washington, that discussion is intensifying ahead of elections slated for November 8. And a chorus of conservatives is increasingly reluctant to spend vast sums on aid to Ukraine. Since the war began, the U.S. has pledged to give Ukraine more than $17 billion in security assistance, well above what Europe has collectively committed.

Stoltenberg said that he is confident Washington will continue aiding Ukraine “partly because if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wins in Ukraine, that will be a catastrophe for the Ukrainians.”

A Ukraine soldier fires a US-made MK-19 automatic grenade launcher towards Russian positions at a front line near Toretsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine | Dave Clark / AFP via Getty Images

But he also stressed the China connection at a moment when Beijing is top of mind for many American policymakers — including some of the same conservatives raising questions about the volume of assistance to Ukraine. 

The Biden administration recently described China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge” in its national security strategy. 

And the document explicitly ranks China above Russia in the longer term: “Russia poses an immediate and ongoing threat to the regional security order in Europe and it is a source of disruption and instability globally but it lacks the across the spectrum capabilities of” China.

Still, the collision of Russia’s long war in Ukraine, domestic U.S. political pressures and the growing focus on Beijing are reinvigorating a long-standing burden-sharing debate within NATO.

In 2014, NATO allies agreed to “aim to move towards” spending 2 percent of their economic output on defense by 2024. With that deadline looming — and the recognition that military threats only seem to be rising — leaders are grappling with what comes next. Will they raise the target number? Will they word the spending goals differently? 

“I expect that NATO allies will at the summit in Vilnius next year make a clear commitment to invest more in defense,” Stoltenberg said while noting that “it’s a bit too early to say” what precise language NATO allies will agree to. 

NATO allies themselves have taken varying approaches to China, with some still adopting a much softer line than Washington. 

Stoltenberg acknowledged these divergences. But he argued the alliance had made progress on confronting Beijing, emphasizing NATO’s decision earlier this summer to explicitly label China a challenge in its long-term strategy document. 

It is “important for NATO allies to stand together and to address the consequences of the rise of China — and that we agree on, and that’s exactly what we are doing,” he said. 

Yet while allies have agreed to “address” China’s rise, they haven’t figured out who should foot the bill for those efforts. Some U.S. lawmakers, academics and experts are advocating for Europe to take the lead in managing local security challenges so the U.S. can focus more on the Indo-Pacific. 

Daniel Hamilton, a U.S. State Department official during the 1990s NATO enlargement wave, dubs it “greater European strategic responsibility.” This approach, added Hamilton, now a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University, would involve European allies providing, within 10 years, “half of the forces and capabilities” needed “for deterrence and collective defense against Russia.” 

European allies, some experts argue, are simply too comfortable in their reliance on Washington. 

“European members of NATO have over-promised and under-delivered for decades,” said Harvard University professor Stephen Walt, a leading international affairs scholar. Europeans, he said, “will not make a sustained effort to rebuild their own defense capabilities if they can count on the United States to rush to their aid at the first sign of trouble.”

Over the next decade, Walt added, “Europe should take primary responsibility for its own defense, while the United States focuses on Asia and shifts from being Europe’s ‘first responder’ to being its ‘ally of last resort.’” 

Stoltenberg pushed back against such a strict division of labor. 

Decoupling North America from Europe “is not a good model, because that will reduce the strength, the credibility of the bond between North America and Europe.”

He did, however, lean on NATO’s European allies — which will include most of the Continent west of Russia once Finland and Sweden’s memberships are approved — to keep upping their defense spending. 

“I strongly believe that European allies should do more,” he said, adding that he has been “pushing hard” on the topic. “The good news,” he noted, “is that all allies and also European allies have increased and are now investing more.”

Still, simple math shows that Europe is not close to being self-sustaining on defense. 

“The reality is that 80 percent of NATO’s defense expenditures come from non-EU allies,” Stoltenberg said. The alliance’s ocean-spanning, multi-continent layout also “makes it clear that you need a transatlantic bond and you need non-EU allies to protect Europe.” 

“But most of all,” Stoltenberg stressed, “this is about politics — I don’t believe in Europe alone, I don’t believe in North America alone.” 

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Russia Unleashes Its Biggest Barrage of Strikes on Ukraine Since Invasion

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KYIV, Ukraine—Waves of Russian missiles slammed into Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in one of the broadest and most intense barrages of the war, in response to a weekend attack Moscow blamed on Ukraine that seriously damaged a bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky

said Russia had carried out dozens of strikes using missiles as well as Iranian-made drones to target the country’s electrical grid and other civilian infrastructure. “They want panic and chaos,” he said in a video address filmed near his office. “They want to destroy our energy system.”

Russian President

Vladimir Putin

on Monday warned of a harsh response if Kyiv were to conduct further “terrorist attacks” following weeks of battlefield losses that culminated in the attack on the strategically important Kerch Strait Bridge.

Of at least 84 missiles that were fired at Ukrainian cities on Monday, 43 were intercepted, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said, adding that 13 drones were also shot down.

Ukraine’s national police service said 11 people were killed and 87 injured across the country, with most strikes hitting electricity substations and other targets outside city centers, further from civilian homes. Power supply was disrupted in some cities.

Ukrainian officials said the strikes reflected Russia’s growing desperation as the war’s momentum shifts in Kyiv’s favor. In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have regained thousands of square miles of territory in the east and advanced in the south, fueling doubts in Moscow over the war’s conduct.

Men wounded in the strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine, which were the first missile attacks to reach the center of the capital in months.



Photo:

Serhii Korovayny for The Wall Street Journal



Photo:

Serhii Korovayny for The Wall Street Journal

Monday’s strikes mark an attempt by Russia to spread fear among Ukrainian civilians, having failed to achieve its aims on the battlefield, Ukrainian officials said. By the afternoon, however, life had largely returned to normal in Kyiv and other cities.

The attacks prompted renewed calls from Ukrainian officials for more weapons systems to defend the country against aerial attacks, including from the Iranian drones that Moscow has deployed increasingly widely in recent weeks.

“The best response to Russian missile terror is the supply of antiaircraft and antimissile systems to Ukraine,” said Defense Minister

Oleksii Reznikov.

Ukraine’s supporters across the West pledged to stand by Kyiv, with Mr. Zelensky speaking by phone with the heads of France, Germany and Britain.

“Alongside our allies and partners, we will continue to impose costs on Russia for its aggression, hold Putin and Russia accountable for its atrocities and war crimes, and provide the support necessary for Ukrainian forces to defend their country and their freedom,”

President Biden

said in a statement.

Meanwhile, India and China, which haven’t joined the West’s pressure campaign against Russia and have lent a degree of support for Mr. Putin, both expressed concern about the flare-up in hostilities and called for de-escalation.

Monday’s strikes hit cities including Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Sumy, as well as Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv that are located in the west and had remained relatively insulated from the war raging in the east and south.

Ukrainian Prime Minister

Denys Shmyhal

said 11 key infrastructure facilities in eight separate regions including Kyiv had been damaged, advising residents to be prepared for temporary outages of electricity, water supply and communications.

One of the first strikes in Kyiv hit around rush hour Monday morning as people were on their way to work and school. At the scene of an explosion at an intersection near Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park, a body lay in the street near the mangled remains of several vehicles. Another blast hit a glass bridge in the city that is a popular tourist attraction, though it remained intact.

An hour later, a cruise missile slammed into an office tower near a railway line. An electrical station across the street appeared to have been the target.

The aftermath of the rush-hour attacks on Kyiv.



Photo:

Serhii Korovayny for The Wall Street Journal

A victim of the Kyiv strikes.



Photo:

VALENTYN OGIRENKO/REUTERS

Outside the office building, a man on a stretcher with a tourniquet on his thigh and blood drenching the lower part of his pant leg screamed as he was loaded into an ambulance. Another man on a stretcher wasn’t moving. One woman stood by, her face covered in blood as another woman picked pieces of glass out of her hair.

A strike also hit near a power station in the eastern part of the city, sending huge plumes of black smoke into the sky. There were power outages in some districts.

The European Union’s commissioner for justice,

Didier Reynders,

who was visiting Kyiv, posted a photograph of himself and his team in a basement beneath the hotel where they sought shelter from the blasts.

Authorities in Kyiv briefly suspended trains on all subway lines, with underground stations operating as shelters.

“The capital is under attack from Russian terrorists!” Kyiv Mayor

Vitali Klitschko

wrote on Telegram, appealing to residents of outlying districts to stay away, while emergency services worked to extinguish fires and security forces closed off streets in the city center.

Air-defense systems have helped keep Kyiv relatively secure in recent months, even as missiles landed in other cities. Many residents who had fled in the early days of the invasion had returned to the city after Russian forces pulled back in March.

Saturday’s attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge, which links Russia to Crimea and has been the economic and military lifeblood of the occupying force on the peninsula, dealt a major blow to Moscow.

Smoke rose above buildings in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.



Photo:

yuriy dyachyshyn/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A home damaged by strikes in Slovyansk, in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.



Photo:

Andriy Andriyenko/Associated Press

Ukrainian officials had expected Russia to strike back after the bridge explosion, for which Kyiv hasn’t claimed responsibility. A soldier from Ukraine’s military intelligence said training exercises had been suspended on Monday for the first time in months in anticipation of strikes.

The main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russia had been planning to attack the country’s infrastructure since earlier this month, moving warships and strategic bombers into position.

The attacks across Ukraine come as pressure has built on Mr. Putin to turn around a military campaign that has crumbled, revealing tensions within his own vast security apparatus.

While some of Russia’s right-wing figures have blamed Russia’s Defense Ministry for failures, others have singled out Mr. Putin personally for pursuing the war too timidly. With Russian forces retreating on the ground in Ukraine, some Russia analysts have suggested that a protracted missile campaign could be in the offing, where Moscow will try to bring Kyiv to the negotiating table by systematically destroying Ukraine’s infrastructure.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes had achieved their goal, with all designated targets hit. Despite the escalation, Kremlin spokesman

Dmitry Peskov

said in a call with reporters that no decision had been made to change the status of what Moscow still calls a “special military operation.”

North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General

Jens Stoltenberg

condemned Russia’s “indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure,” writing on Twitter that the Western military alliance would continue supporting Kyiv “for as long as it takes.”

A spokesman for the EU’s foreign-policy chief called Russia’s attacks a war crime. “As always in such cases, the European Union recalls that all those responsible will be held accountable,” spokesman

Peter Stano

said.

Andriy Yermak,

Ukraine’s chief of presidential staff, said Mr. Zelensky had held discussions with German Chancellor

Olaf Scholz

and French President

Emmanuel Macron.

“We agreed to hold a G-7 meeting tomorrow and issue a strong statement regarding support for Ukraine, increasing assistance for closing the sky over Ukraine, and further sanctions,” Mr. Yermak wrote on Telegram.

Announcing the previously scheduled delivery of the first of four Iris-T SLM air-defense systems, Germany Defense Minister

Christine Lambrecht

said the renewed missile fire on Kyiv and other cities underscored the importance of promptly supplying Ukraine with defense systems.

The strikes galvanized a new crowdfunding effort to buy Ukrainian-made drones for the army. Within hours, the campaign launched by comedian and TV host

Serhiy Prytula

had raised more than $3 million.

A missile strike in the city of Dnipro left a crater in the road.



Photo:

dimitar dilkoff/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The attacks on Zaporizhzhia marked the third time it has been pounded in less than a week, with strikes in the city a day earlier killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 70. Zaporizhzhia, which is about 30 miles from the front lines, has become a constant target of Russian shelling in recent days. Kyiv controls the city but Russian forces hold most of the region’s territory.

Oleksandr Starukh,

governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, wrote on Telegram that the latest strikes in the center of the city destroyed a multistory residential building, killing one and wounding five. There could be people under the rubble, he said.

Vladimir Rogov,

the Kremlin-installed leader of the partially occupied region, said the strikes in the city early Monday had targeted “military and civilian infrastructure” used by Ukrainian forces.

Igor Terekhov,

mayor of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, said strikes had knocked out electricity and water supplies in parts of the city. Traffic on the Kharkiv metro was also suspended.

Andriy Sadovyi,

mayor of Lviv in western Ukraine, said part of the city was without electricity, with power generators operating to restore water supplies.

Dmytro Zhyvytskyi,

head of the Sumy regional military administration, said there were power outages in all areas of the region.

“Your attacks provoke only rage and contempt in us! Not fear, not desire to negotiate,” said

Oleksiy Danilov,

secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

—Alan Cullison and Nikita Nikolaienko contributed to this article.

Write to Ian Lovett at ian.lovett@wsj.com, Isabel Coles at isabel.coles@wsj.com and Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

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Russian armed forces are being ‘hollowed out,’ UK says

The U.K.’s Ministry of Defence said that Russia’s forces are becoming “hollowed out” in the Luhansk region amid a continuing, intense period of fighting in the area which is a part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

In the latest intelligence update from the ministry on Tuesday, it noted that Ukrainian forces continue to consolidate their positions on higher ground in the city of Lyschansk, after pulling back from its neighboring city of Severodonetsk which Russian forces fully captured at the weekend.

Severodonetsk has been a prime target in the Kremlin’s pursuit to seize full control of Luhansk.

Aris Messinis | Afp | Getty Images

Despite this tactical retreat, the U.K. noted that Ukrainian forces “continue to disrupt Russian command and control with successful strikes deep behind Russian lines.”

The ministry noted that Russia had launched what it described as “unusually intense waves of strikes across Ukraine using long-range missiles” between June 24-26 and that these weapons highly likely included the Soviet-era AS-4 KITCHEN and more modern AS-23a KODIAK missiles, fired from both Belarusian and Russian airspace.

“These weapons were designed to take on targets of strategic importance, but Russia continues to expend them in large numbers for tactical advantage,” it noted.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia spreads false and unfounded claims over shopping mall attack

Russian officials have reacted to international condemnation over a missile strike on a shopping mall on Monday by posting false and unfounded claims about the attack.

Russia’s defense ministry issued a military update in which it claimed that they were targeting hangars in Kremenchuk holding weapons from European countries and the U.S. — rather than the shopping mall that was struck by Russian missiles on Monday, killing at least 18 people and injuring many others.

It said that, “as a result of the precision strike, Western-made weapons and ammunition being concentrated in the warehouse area for further dispatch to the Ukrainian group of troops in the Donbas were hit.”

The ministry then claimed that “the detonation of stored ammunition for Western weapons caused a fire in a non-functioning shopping center located next to the territory of the plant.” The update comes after another Russian official claimed, presenting no evidence, that the shopping mall attack was a “Ukrainian provocation.”

Ukraine and Western military officials have said that there is no military target near the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. The shopping mall was believed to have around 1,000 people inside at the time of the strike yesterday.

The attack has been widely condemned by Western leaders with the G-7 calling it a war crime.

It’s not the first time that Russia has responded to widespread criticism of its multiple assaults on civilians and civilian infrastructure by attempting to deny responsibility and to spread falsehoods and disinformation about the attack.

It has tried to claim that an attack on a maternity hospital early on in the war was staged by Ukraine despite abundant evidence to the contrary. It also tried to claim that a massacre of civilians in Bucha in Kyiv was staged by Ukraine and that footage and photographs of dead bodies were fake and created by Western media, again despite widespread evidence to the contrary.

Human rights groups and investigators are probing allegations of war crimes and have been gathering evidence of these during the conflict.

— Holly Ellyatt

Search and rescue operation continues at shopping mall

Rescue workers at the shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, on June 27, 2022. G-7 leaders denounced the strike as a war crime, while Russia has denied that it targeted a civilian building on purpose.

State Emergency Service Of Ukraine | via Reuters

The search and rescue operation continues at the shopping mall at Kremenchuk that was hit by Russian shelling on Monday. So far, 18 people are known to have died in the strike and 59 are injured, with 28 of them in intensive care.

Damaged building structures are being dismantled with the help of heavy engineering equipment and small mechanization, Ukrainian officials said on Telegram today.

G-7 leaders denounced the strike as a war crime, while Russia has denied that it targeted a civilian building on purpose.

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, wrote on Twitter that the attack was a “Ukrainian provocation.” He cited no evidence for his claim.

“Exactly what Kiev regime needs to keep focus of attention on Ukraine before (the) NATO Summit,” he said, referring to the alliance’s meeting in Madrid that begins Tuesday.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitryo Kuleba said on Twitter today that it was “sickening to see Russian reactions to the Kremenchuk shopping mall strike. Ordinary Russians cheer on social media. Russian diplomats and officials spread insane conspiracy theories, denying that the strike even happened.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Death toll from shopping mall strike rises to 18

Rescue workers at a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, on June 27, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strike on the mall had “no strategic value.”

State Emergency Service Of Ukraine | via Reuters

The death toll from the Russian missile strike on the Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk on Monday has risen to 18, according to a Ukrainian official.

“18 killed… Sincere condolences to relatives and friends. Rescuers continue to work,” the head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, Dmytro Lunin, posted on Telegram on Tuesday.

Russian forces launched what Ukraine believes were Kh-22 missiles on a shopping mall in the town of Kremenchuk, a town along the Dnipro river which flows through the center of Ukraine. About 1,000 civilians were in the mall.

Earlier, it was reported about 15 people had been killed in the attack. At least 59 people were injured, 25 of whom were hospitalized.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging platform that the strike on the mall in Kremenchuk had “no strategic value” and was not a site affiliated with Ukrainian armed forces.

The Kremlin has previously denied that it targets civilians.

G-7 leaders condemned the attack on Monday, issuing a joint statement in which they said: “We stand united with Ukraine in mourning the innocent victims of this brutal attack. Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime.”

“Russian President Putin and those responsible will be held to account,” the statement added.

NATO alliance set to meet in Spain as Russia’s aggression increases

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has already previewed new moves by the alliance, announcing on Monday that it would increase its rapid response force and will bolster its battlegroups in eastern Europe.

Yves Herman | Reuters

The NATO military alliance is all set to meet in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday, with the war in Ukraine at the top of the agenda.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has already previewed new moves by the alliance, announcing on Monday that it would increase its rapid response force and will bolster its battlegroups in eastern Europe.

“At the summit we will strengthen our forward defences. We will enhance our battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance up to brigade levels. We will transform the NATO response force and increase the number of high-readiness forces to well over 300,000,” Stoltenberg told a press conference.

Stoltenberg said the moves reflect that “allies consider Russia as the most significant and direct threat to our security.” The summit comes as Russia makes slow but significant headway in eastern Ukraine, seizing more of the Donbas as fierce fighting in the region continues.

In addition, Russian forces have attacked several major cities in recent days, including the capital Kyiv. An attack on a shopping mall yesterday killed at least 15 people and wounded 59 others. The attack was condemned by G-7 leaders meeting in Germany.

Rescue workers at a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk, in Ukraine’s Poltava region, on June 27, 2022.

State Emergency Service Of Ukraine | via Reuters

NATO has other issues to deal with, the largest of which perhaps being Turkey’s ongoing opposition to Finland’s and Sweden’s application to join the group. Stoltenberg said Monday that “the security concerns of all allies must be taken into account as part of the NATO accession process. Turkiye’s concerns are legitimate and must be addressed.”

— Holly Ellyatt

At least 15 people killed by Russian missile strike on Ukrainian shopping mall

Ukrainian firefighters trying to put out a fire at a shopping mall after a Russian attack in Ukraine on June 27, 2022. “This is not an off-target missile strike, this is a calculated Russian strike — exactly at this shopping mall,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukrainian State Emergency Service / Handout | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Russian missile strikes on a Ukrainian shopping mall killed at least 15 people and wounded 59 others, Ukraine’s emergency services said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said on the Telegram messaging platform that more than 1,000 people were inside at the time of the rocket attack, NBC News reported.

“This is not an off-target missile strike, this is a calculated Russian strike — exactly at this shopping mall,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

— Chelsea Ong

G-7 leaders condemn Russian missile strike on Ukrainian shopping mall

Rescuers work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kremenchuk, in Poltava region, Ukraine June 27, 2022.

State Emergency Service Of Ukraine | via Reuters

G-7 leaders condemned a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian shopping mall that resulted in the death of innocent civilians.

“We stand united with Ukraine in mourning the innocent victims of this brutal attack. Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” the leaders wrote in a joint statement.

“Russian President Putin and those responsible will be held to account,” the statement added.

Rescue workers at a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk, in Ukraine’s Poltava region, on June 27, 2022.

State Emergency Service Of Ukraine | via Reuters

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging platform that the strike on the mall in Kremenchuk had “no strategic value” and was not a site affiliated with Ukrainian armed forces.

The Kremlin has previously denied that it targets civilians.

“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian as well as military support for Ukraine, for as long as it takes. We will not rest until Russia ends its cruel and senseless war on Ukraine,” the G-7 leaders added.

 — Amanda Macias

Turkey’s Erdogan adamant on objections to Sweden, Finland NATO bids

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey May 18, 2022. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT

Murat Cetinmuhurdar | Reuters

Turkey’s president says he will do “whatever is necessary for our country’s rights and interests” at the NATO summit in Spain.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he’d provide documents and visuals on “terror groups,” including Kurdish militant groups and the network of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed for a 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, to show his counterparts the “hypocrisy” on terror.

Ankara has objected to Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to join NATO, citing what it considers to be a lax approach to groups Turkey deems national security threats, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its Syrian extension.

Turkey has demanded the two Nordic countries extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed after Turkey’s 2019 military incursion into northeast Syria.

“We will tell them clearly that it is not possible to expect a different attitude from Turkey unless this picture changes,” he said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

— Associated Press

National security adviser confirms U.S. will provide Ukraine with air defense systems

Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, speaks during an interview at an Economic Club of Washington event in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 14, 2022.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

National security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that the U.S. is in the final stages of preparing a security package for Ukraine that includes advanced air defense capabilities. 

“We do intend to finalize a package that includes advanced medium- and long-range air defense capabilities for the Ukrainians, along with some other items that are of urgent need, including ammunition for artillery and counterbattery radar systems,” Sullivan told reporters on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Krun, Germany.

“I won’t get into the details of the system. I’ll wait until the contract actually gets done,” he said. He added that President Joe Biden informed his G-7 counterparts and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the upcoming security assistance package.

The U.S. has committed $6.1 billion in defense aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

 — Amanda Macias

NATO to greatly increase its high-readiness force to 300,000

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a news conference ahead of a NATO defence ministers’ meeting at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 15, 2022. 

Yves Herman | Reuters

The NATO military alliance will increase the number of its forces at high readiness to over 300,000 from the current number of 40,000, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“We will transform the NATO Response Force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000,” said at a press conference on Monday, ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid that begins on Tuesday.

The summit would see NATO strengthen its forward defenses and enhance its battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance, he said. “We will also boost our ability to reinforce in crisis and conflict,” he added. It would do this with:

  • More pre-positioned equipment, and stockpiles of military supplies.
  • More forward-deployed capabilities, like air defense.
  • Strengthened command and control.
  • And upgraded defense plans, with forces pre-assigned to defend specific allies.

The NATO Response Force is a high-readiness force comprising land, air, sea and special forces units that are capable of being deployed quickly. The force currently comprises around 40,000 troops.

NATO’s announcements come as the military alliance tries to best assist Ukraine in repelling the Russian invasion, with various NATO members sending arms to Kyiv, but trying to avoid a direct confrontation with nuclear power Russia.

NATO’s summit will see its 30 member countries meet, as well as representatives from its allies. Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea will join the summit for the first time, and Georgia and the European Union will also take part.

— Holly Ellyatt

‘For as long as it takes’: G-7 issues statement in support of Ukraine

The G-7 — which comprises the world’s most wealthy nations of the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Japan — has published a statement in which they affirm their continued support for Ukraine and committed to further punishing Russia on the economic front.

“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the G-7 said in the communique on Monday.

The groups said it was committed to sustaining and intensifying international economic and political pressure on President Putin’s regime and what it called “its enablers” in Belarus, depriving Russia of the economic means to persist in its war of aggression against Ukraine.

The targeted use of coordinated sanctions would, the group said, continue “for as long as necessary.” Sanctions imposed on Russia so far were, the leaders said, “in defence of the rules-based international order that Russia has so egregiously violated.” And there would be more sanctions, they noted.

“We will continue to explore new ways to isolate Russia from participating in the global market and crack down on evasion. We are determined to reduce Russia’s revenues, including from gold. We will also continue to target evasion and backfilling activities,” the G-7 said.

It added that it would further reduce Russia’s export revenues by taking “appropriate steps to further reduce dependency on Russian energy,” and “further restrict Russia’s access to key industrial inputs, services, and technologies produced by our economies, particularly those supporting Russia’s armament industrial base and technology sector.”

Finally, the G-7 added that it will increase the costs of Russia’s war on Ukraine by imposing targeted sanctions on those responsible for war crimes, exercising illegitimate authority in Ukraine, and those that it said were “standing behind Russia’s engagement in efforts to increase global food insecurity by stealing and exporting Ukrainian grain or otherwise profit illegitimately from the war.”

The group said it would assist the global economy and would take action to help mitigate spillover effects from the sanctions, especially relating to humanitarian and other basic needs, and vulnerable populations.

— Holly Ellyatt

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Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

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U.S. Senate advances nearly $40 billion Ukraine aid bill

The U.S. Senate advanced a nearly $40 billion aid package for Ukraine.

The chamber voted to move ahead with the bill by an 88-11 margin. All of the senators who opposed the measure were Republicans.

A final vote on the military and humanitarian assistance could take place as soon as Thursday. Once the Senate passes the bill, it will head to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

Senate leaders wanted to approve the bill quickly last week, but Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., blocked the unanimous consent needed to pass it.

— Jacob Pramuk

WHO wants investigation into Russian attack on Ukrainian health facilities

The World Health Organization called for investigations into Russian attacks on health-care facilities and ambulances in Ukraine.

The global health agency has documented 226 attacks since Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24, according to Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe. At least 75 people died and 49 were injured in the attacks, he said.

“These attacks are not justified and they are never OK. And they must be investigated,” Kluge said during a press briefing at the Ukraine Media Center in Kyiv.

The WHO will contribute to any investigation that takes place in the future, Kluge added.

— Annika Kim Constantino

Cannes Film Festival opens with Zelenskyy video address

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy is seen on a screen as he delivers a video address at the 75th Cannes Film Festival – Opening ceremony, May 17, 2022.

Sarah Meyssonnier | Reuters

After a canceled 2020 edition and a scaled back gathering last year, the Cannes Film Festival kicked off with an eye turned to Russia’s war in Ukraine and a video message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Formally attired stars including Eva Longoria, Julianne Moore, Bérénice Bejo and “No Time to Die” star Lashana Lynch were among those who streamed down Cannes’ famous red carpet for the opening of the 75th Cannes Film Festival and the premiere of Michel Hazanavicius’ zombie comedy “Final Cut.”

More star-studded premieres — “Top Gun: Maverick!” “Elvis!” — await over the next 12 days, during which 21 films will vie for the festival’s prestigious top award, the Palme d’Or. But the opening and the carefully choreographed red-carpet parade leading up the steps to the Grand Théâtre Lumiére again restored one of the movies’ grandest pageants after two years of pandemic that have challenged the exalted stature Cannes annually showers on cinema.

But the war in Ukraine remained in Cannes’ spotlight. During the festival’s opening ceremony, Zelenskyy spoke at length about the connection between cinema and reality, referencing films like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” and Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” as inspirations to him.

“The power they’ve taken from the people will be returned to the people,” said Zelenskyy.

— Associated Press

State Department launches new program to track Russian war crimes in Ukraine

Ukrainian police officers document the destruction at one of Europe’s largest clothing market “Barabashovo” (more than 75 hectares) in Kharkiv on May 16, 2022, which was destroed as aresult of shelling, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Sergey Bobok | AFP | Getty Images

The U.S. State Department announced the launch of a new program dedicated to documenting “Russia-perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.”

The program, dubbed Conflict Observatory, will analyze and preserve publicly and commercially available data, including satellite imagery and information shared via social media platforms.

The State Department said that the program received an initial $6 million investment and is expected to secure future funding from the European Democratic Resilience Initiative.

Reports and analyses generated from the program will be available online through the ConflictObservatory.org website.

— Amanda Macias

Macron and Zelenskyy speak about additional weapons deliveries and Ukraine’s application to join the EU

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen via videolink, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 9, 2022. 

Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a readout of the call from the French president’s office.

Macron asked for an update on the ground, including the evacuations from Mariupol and from the Azovstal steel plant. He also asked about the need for additional arms for Ukrainian troops.

The French president confirmed to Zelenskyy that arms deliveries will continue and even ramp up in the coming days and weeks, as will the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The two presidents also discussed Ukraine’s application for membership in the European Union.

— Amanda Macias

Amnesty International raises concerns following reports Ukrainian troops surrendered at Azovstal plant

A screen grab taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry shows Ukrainian soldiers are being evacuated from Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, Ukraine on May 17, 2022.

Russian Defense Ministry | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Amnesty International raised concerns following reports that Ukrainian forces holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant surrendered to Russia’s armed forces.

“Amnesty International has documented summary killings of captives by Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, as well as the extrajudicial executions of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces in recent weeks. The Azov Battalion soldiers who surrendered today must not meet the same fate,” wrote Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Krivosheev added that prisoners of war should have immediate access to medical treatment and should not be subjected to “any form of torture or ill-treatment.”

“The relevant authorities must fully respect the rights of prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva conventions,” he said, referencing international humanitarian law.

— Amanda Macias

Ukraine foreign minister discussed arms supply and new sanctions with Dutch counterpart

Netherlands’ Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra (L) poses during a meeting with Ukrainia’s counterpart Dmytro Kuleba (R) in Johan de Withuis in The Hague on May 17, 2022, on the 83rd day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sem Van Der Wal | AFP | Getty Images

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba discussed arms supplies and the application of new sanctions against Russia during a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra.

“Commended him and the Dutch government for their efforts to defend peace in Ukraine and Europe. We focused on further arms supplies, new sanctions on Russia, and Ukraine’s EU candidate status,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

— Amanda Macias

Yellen says EU could combine tariffs on Russian oil with embargo

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at the Ministry of Finance in Warsaw, Poland on May 16, 2022

Mateusz Wlodarczyk | Nurphoto | Getty Images

The European Union could combine import tariffs on Russian oil with the phased oil embargo it is trying to put in place to shrink Russia’s energy revenues, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

The tariff concept will be presented at a G7 finance leaders meeting this week as an economically less costly way to siphon away oil revenues from Moscow while producing faster results, U.S. Treasury officials told reporters.

The tariff plan would aim to keep more Russian oil in the global market, limiting price spikes spurred by a full embargo, while limiting the amount of money Russia can earn from exports, the officials said.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has proposed an embargo on imports of Russian crude that would start to phase in next year in response to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, but some eastern European countries heavily dependent on Russian oil object to the plan.

Yellen said she discussed a wide range of options for reducing European dependence on Russian energy with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels and added that tariffs and embargoes “are two things that could be combined.”

— Reuters

Blinken speaks to wife of WNBA star Brittney Griner

A close up shot of Brittney Griner #42 of the Phoenix Mercury at practice and media availability during the 2021 WNBA Finals on October 11, 2021 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Michael Gonzales | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the wife of detained WNBA star Brittney Griner on Saturday, a senior State Department official confirmed to NBC News.

In February, the Olympian was arrested on drug charges after a search of her luggage at the Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow allegedly turned up vape cartridges with cannabis oil, Russian authorities said.

The offense could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Blinken told Cherelle Griner that her wife’s case has his full attention and that the State Department is working on it day and night, according to the official. Blinken also told Griner’s wife that the two should stay in touch over the course of Griner’s detention.

Last week, Griner’s pre-trial detention was extended for a month.

— Amanda Macias

White House confident NATO can reach deal on Swedish, Finnish membership

New White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks to reporters in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 16, 2022.

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

The Biden administration is confident NATO can reach consensus about bids by Sweden and Finland to join the organization, White house press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, amid pushback from NATO member Turkey.

The remarks, made to reporters aboard Air Force One, echoed similar statements by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Turkey’s objections appeared to have come as a surprise also in Washington, whose relations with Ankara have been strained in recent years. The U.S. suspended Turkey from its F-35 fighter jet program over Turkey’s decision to purchase a Russian missile defense system.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was traveling to Washington for meetings Wednesday with Blinken.

— Reuters and Associated Press

UN says 3,752 killed in Ukraine since start of war

Relatives of the fallen soldier Yurii Huk, age 41 pay their respects by his grave at the Field of Mars of Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine on May 16, 2022.

Omar Marques | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The United Nations has confirmed 3,752 civilian deaths and 4,062 injuries in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on Feb. 24.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher, because the armed conflict can delay reports.

The international body said most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes.

— Amanda Macias

International Criminal Court sends its largest forensics team ever to Ukraine

War crime prosecutor’s team member speaks on the phone next to buildings that were destroyed by Russian shelling, amid Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, in Borodyanka, Kyiv region, Ukraine April 7, 2022.

Zohra Bensemra | Reuters

The International Criminal Court deployed a team of 42 investigators, forensic experts and support personnel to Ukraine as the analyzes potential war crimes.

“This represents the largest ever single field deployment by my office since its establishment,” Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor for the world’s highest court, said in a statement.

Khan added that the team will collect more testimonial accounts, identify relevant forensic materials and “ensure that evidence is collected in a manner that strengthens its admissibility in future proceedings before the ICC.”

Russian officials have previously denied any knowledge of war crimes committed in Ukraine.

— Amanda Macias

Biden will meet with leaders of Finland and Sweden at the White House this week

U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

President Joe Biden will welcome Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and President Sauli Niinistö of Finland to the White House this week. 

“The leaders will discuss Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO applications and European security, as well as strengthening our close partnerships across a range of global issues and support for Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson receives Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto at the Adelcrantzska house in Stockholm, Sweden May 17, 2022. 

Anders Wiklund | Tt News Agency | Reuters

Kremlin officials have slammed Finland and Sweden’s recent bids to join NATO saying any future expansion of the military alliance will be viewed as a “grave mistake” with global consequences.

— Amanda Macias

Finland’s Parliament approves NATO application

The proposal to apply for membership of the NATO military alliance has been overwhelmingly backed in the Finnish Parliament.

Lawmakers voted 188 to 8 in favor of the application in a vote on Tuesday afternoon.

The result of the Nato vote seen on the voting board during the plenary session at the Finnish parliament, as Finnish legislators have voted and decided that Finland will seek the NATO membership in Helsinki, Finland May 17, 2022. 

Antti Aimo-Koivisto | Lehtikuva | Reuters

Putin warns Europe on energy price rises

Vladimir Putin has sought to ward off Europe from imposing strict sanctions on Russian oil, by saying that it would cause economic activity in the region to subside.

In comments translated by Reuters, he said that EU countries would not be able to completely ditch Russian oil and the region would end up with the most expensive energy resources.

He claimed that Russian oil and gas revenues were still on the rise, and that the possible embargo from Brussels had been behind the recent price surges.

Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pool | Reuters

Ukraine’s allies must increase funding for the country, Yellen says

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for Ukraine’s allies to step up financial support for the country on Tuesday, saying that funds that have been announced so far would not be sufficient for the country’s short-term needs as Russia’s invasion continues, Reuters reported.

“Ukraine’s financing needs are significant,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Brussels Economic Forum, adding that Ukraine’s government continued to function due to the courage and resourcefulness of its officials.

Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, delivers the “Tommaso Padoa Schioppa” lecture at the Brussels Economic Forum in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.

Valeria Mongelli | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“In the months until tax collection can resume at pace, Ukraine needs budget funding to pay soldiers, employees and pensioners, as well as to operate an economy that meets its citizens’ basic needs,” Yellen said.

“In short order, it will need to turn to repairing and restoring critical utilities and services.” 

While Ukraine would eventually need “massive support” for reconstruction and recovery on the scale of the post-World War Two Marshall Plan for Europe, the country would have to take this “one step at a time.”

— Reuters

Russia plays down Finland, Sweden NATO bids

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a news conference following talks with his Omani counterpart Badr al-Busaidi in Muscat, Oman, May 11, 2022.

Russian Foreign Ministry | Reuters

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has played down Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO, saying it makes “no big difference” if they join as they’ve long-participated in military drills anyway.

The comments come after military analysts said Russia had little room to retaliate against the move, given that it wants to avoid a direct confrontation with NATO, and the fact that its forces are fully tied-up in Ukraine.

On Monday, Putin initially said the expansion of NATO “is a problem,” but later stated that there was no threat to Russia if Sweden and Finland joined. However, Moscow has warned that will respond to any military build-up in the Nordic countries if they are admitted to the alliance.

Status of Mariupol uncertain after evacuation of soldiers from steel plant

A screengrab from a video shows a shower of burning munitions hitting Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Ukraine. The video was obtained by Reuters on May 15, 2022.

Reuters Tv | Reuters

There are several unknowns when it comes to the status of the southern port city of Mariupol after hundreds more Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from the city’s Azovstal steelworks complex.

The steelworks was the last stronghold of Ukrainian fighters trying to resist Russian occupying forces in the southern port city.

A wounded service member of Ukrainian forces from the besieged Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol is transported on a stretcher out of a bus, which arrived under escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Novoazovsk, Ukraine May 16, 2022. 

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

It’s uncertain whether the evacuation has been completed and if not, how many Ukrainian soldiers could still be in the plant. It’s also uncertain whether the evacuation means that Ukraine has conceded full control of the city to Russian forces.

Control of the city was a key strategic goal for Russia, which is widely seen as wanting to create a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, via Mariupol.

A convoy of pro-Russian troops is seen before the expected evacuation of wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the besieged Azovstal steel mill in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Mariupol, Ukraine May 16, 2022.

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

Remarking on the evacuation of Ukrainian soldiers in the plant, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last night that “Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive. This is our principle. I think that every normal person will understand these words.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Fighting intensifies in Donbas, with civilian infrastructure under fire, officials say

Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces is intensifying in the Donetsk area of the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s armed forces and officials have said.

The remains of a military vehicle is seen following the shelling of the village of Bilogorivka, Lugansk region, eastern Ukraine, pictured on May 13, 2022.

Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images

Russian enemy aircraft have destroyed civilian and military infrastructure in the region, the armed forces said in an update on Telegram Tuesday morning, while the head of Luhansk’s regional administration Serhiy Hayday said on social media this morning that the shelling of settlements in the Severodonetsk area of the Donbas had intensified, with a hospital and residential buildings hit.

He said there were at least ten dead and three wounded during the strikes and posted images of shell-damaged buildings on his Facebook page.

In his nightly address on Monday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s armed forces are “holding back constant attacks in those areas where Russia is still trying to advance,” with Severodonetsk and other cities in the Donbas region being principal targets for Russia.

— Holly Ellyatt

Putin is taking active role in war decision-making, reports suggest

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) greets Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov (L) while vivting the National Defense Center in Moscow, Russia, March,11,2016.

Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is now directly involved in the daily running of the war in Ukraine, according to Western military sources reported in the British media on Tuesday.

The BBC and other British news agencies have said Putin, together with his chief of staff, are “taking decisions normally made by more junior officers,” citing unnamed military sources.

One of the sources told the BBC this was further evidence that Moscow’s campaign is not going according to plan, and Putin is becoming increasingly frustrated by its setbacks

The Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday that Putin has become involved to the extent that he is making operational and tactical decisions “at the level of a colonel or brigadier.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Turkey says it won’t approve Finland, Sweden NATO bids

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan holds a news conference during the NATO summit at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2021.

Yves Herman | Reuters

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated Ankara’s objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, saying Turkey will not approve the bids.

He claims the countries have harbored people linked to groups Turkey deems to be terrorist organizations.

Finland and Sweden have said they will send delegations to Ankara to try to convince Turkey to accept their bids; Erdogan, however, has said they “should not bother.”

“Neither of these countries have a clear, open attitude toward terrorist organizations,” Erdogan said at a news conference Monday. “How can we trust them?”

Enlargement of NATO requires the unanimous agreement of the 30 current members.

Turkey accuses Finland and Sweden of harboring members of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The PKK has clashed with Turkish security forces for years but says its aims are greater cultural and political rights for Kurds and the eventual establishment an independent Kurdish state.

CNBC has reached out to the Swedish and Finnish foreign ministries for comment.

Erdogan also said Turkey could not accept the Finnish and Swedish bids because of an arms embargo the countries imposed on Turkey after its incursion into Syria in 2019.

“First of all, we cannot say ‘yes’ to those who impose sanctions on Turkey, on joining NATO which is a security organization,” Erdogan said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine war could cause ‘catastrophic’ levels of malnutrition in children, UNICEF warns

Around 13.6 million children under five suffer from severe wasting — a condition where children are too thin for their height, leading to weak immune systems, said UNICEF.

Guido Dingemans, De Eindredactie | Moment | Getty Images

The war in Ukraine, along with other global shocks to food security, is creating conditions for a significant increase in life-threatening malnutrition for children, according to UNICEF.

The United Nations agency said in a statement that soaring food prices caused by the war is set to drive up the cost of “life-saving” therapeutic food treatment. It added that severe malnutrition in children could go to “catastrophic levels.”

Around 13.6 million children under five suffer from severe wasting — a condition where children are too thin for their height, leading to weak immune systems, the UN agency said in a press release.

The most effective treatment is a ready-to-use therapeutic food, but the price of that is expected to increase by up to 16% in the next six months due to a sharp rise in the cost of ingredients.

“For millions of children every year, these sachets of therapeutic paste are the difference between life and death,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

Around 10 million severely wasted children do not have access to the treatment, and another 600,000 children may lose access at current spending levels, Unicef added.

Before the war in Ukraine began, conflict, climate change and Covid were already making it difficult for families to feed their children, said Russell.

“The world is rapidly becoming a virtual tinderbox of preventable child deaths and child suffering,” she said.

“There is precious little time to reignite a global effort to prevent, detect and treat malnutrition before a bad situation gets much, much worse,” she added.

— Abigail Ng

Russia likely to use artillery strikes heavily in its advance on eastern Donbas region, UK’s Defence Ministry says

A car drives past a large missile crater in front of a residential apartment block damaged by a Russian missile strike on May 06, 2022 in a city in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Russia will likely continue relying heavily on massed artillery strikes as it tries to regain momentum in its advance on the eastern Donbas region, said the U.K.’s Defence Ministry in its daily intelligence update.

The update added that Russia had proven it was willing to use strikes against inhabited areas.

Around 3,500 buildings were estimated to have been destroyed or damaged in the Chernihiv region north of Kyiv, during Russia’s abandoned advance towards the Ukrainian capital, the ministry said in its update, posted on Twitter. As much as 80% of the damage was caused to residential buildings.

“The scale of this damage indicates Russia’s preparedness to use artillery against inhabited areas, with minimal regard to discrimination or proportionality,” the ministry said in its update, posted on Twitter.

Russia has possibly relied more heavily on such “indiscriminate” shelling because of its “unwillingness to risk flying combat aircraft routinely beyond its own frontlines,” the ministry said.

— Weizhen Tan

More than 260 fighters evacuated from Mariupol steelworks

A wounded service member of Ukrainian forces from the besieged Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol is transported on a stretcher out of a bus, which arrived under escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Novoazovsk, Ukraine May 16, 2022. 

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

More than 260 Ukrainian fighters, including some who are badly wounded, were evacuated Monday from a steel plant in the ruined city of Mariupol and taken to areas under Russia’s control, the Ukrainian military said.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said 53 seriously wounded fighters were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol. An additional 211 fighters were evacuated to Olenivka through a humanitarian corridor. An exchange would be worked out for their return home, she said.

A bus carrying wounded service members of Ukrainian forces from the besieged Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol drives under escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict upon arrival in Novoazovsk, Ukraine May 16, 2022. 

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

Malyar said missions are underway to rescue the remaining fighters inside the plant, the last stronghold of resistance in the devastated southern port city.

“Thanks to the defenders of Mariupol, Ukraine gained critically important time to form reserves and regroup forces and receive help from partners,” she said. “And they fulfilled all their tasks. But it is impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means.”

A still image taken from a video released by Russian Defence Ministry shows what it claims are service members of Ukrainian forces, who left the besieged Azovstal steel plant, being searched by the pro-Russian military in Mariupol, Ukraine. Video released May 17, 2022.

Russian Defence Ministry | Via Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the evacuation of the fighters from Azovstal to separatist-controlled territory was to save their lives. He said the “heavily wounded” were getting medical help.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It’s our principle,” he said. “The work continues to bring the guys home, and it requires delicacy and time.”

A still image taken from a video released by Russian Defence Ministry shows what it claims are service members of Ukrainian forces, who left the besieged Azovstal steel plant, sitting inside a bus in Mariupol, Ukraine. Video released May 17, 2022.

Russian Defence Ministry | Via Reuters

President Putin says NATO expansion ‘is a problem’

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech as he meets Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto on August 21, 2019 in Helsinki, Finland. Russian President Putin is on a one-day visit to Finland.

Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images

Moscow has wasted no time in making its feelings known about the likely expansion of the Western military alliance NATO, with President Putin saying Monday that it “is a problem.”

Putin claimed that the move was in the interests of the U.S., in comments reported by Reuters, and said Russia would react to the expansion of military infrastructure to Sweden and Finland, although he insisted Moscow had “no problems” with the countries.

Putin’s comments come after other top Kremlin officials deplored the future expansion of NATO, with one describing it is a “grave mistake” with global consequences.

— Holly Ellyatt

McDonald’s says it will sell its Russia business

A logo of the McDonald’s restaurant is seen in the window with a reflection of Kremlin’s tower in central Moscow, Russia March 9, 2022.

Maxim Shemetov | Reuters

McDonald’s said Monday that it will sell its business in Russia, a little more than two months after it paused operations in the country due to its invasion of Ukraine.

“The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald’s to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values,” the company said in a news release.

Russian forces, directed by President Vladimir Putin, have been accused of an array of war crimes during their assault on Ukraine.

McDonald’s exit from Russia is a bitter end to an era that once promised hope. The company, among the most recognizable symbols of American capitalism, opened its first restaurant in Russia more than 32 years ago as the communist Soviet regime was falling apart.

— Mike Calia

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Small wins buoy Ukraine; West says Russians losing momentum

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Almost three months after Russia shocked the world by invading Ukraine, its military faces a bogged-down war, the prospect of a bigger NATO, and an opponent buoyed Sunday by wins on and off the battlefield.

Top diplomats from NATO met in Berlin with the alliance’s chief, who declared that the war “is not going as Moscow had planned.”

“Ukraine can win this war,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that the alliance must continue to offer military support to Kyiv. He spoke by video link to the meeting as he recovers from a COVID-19 infection.

On the diplomatic front, both Finland and Sweden took steps bringing them closer to NATO membership despite Russian objections. Finland announced Sunday that it was seeking to join NATO, saying the invasion had changed Europe’s security landscape. Several hours later, Sweden’s governing party endorsed the country’s own bid for membership, which could lead to an application in days.

If the two nonaligned Nordic nations become part of the alliance, it would represent an affront to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has called NATO’s post-Cold War expansion in Eastern Europe as a threat to Russia. NATO says it is a purely defensive alliance.

While Moscow lost ground on the diplomatic front, Russian forces also failed to make territorial gains in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine said it held off Russian offensives in the east, and Western military officials said the campaign Moscow launched there after its forces failed to seize the capital, Kyiv, has slowed to a snail’s pace.

Ukraine, meanwhile, celebrated a morale-boosting victory in the Eurovision Song Contest. The folk-rap ensemble Kalush Orchestra won the glitzy pan-European competition with its song “Stefania,” which has become a anthem among Ukrainians during the war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed that his nation would claim the customary winner’s honor of hosting the next annual competition.

“Step by step, we are forcing the occupiers to leave the Ukrainian land,” Zelenskyy said.

The band’s frontman, Oleh Psiuk, said at a news conference Sunday that the musicians were “ready to fight” when they return home. Ukraine’s government prohibits men between 18 and 60 from leaving the country, but the all-male band’s six members received special permission to go to Italy to represent Ukraine in the contest.

They will return to a country still fighting for survival.

Russian and Ukrainian fighters are engaged in a grinding battle for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas. Ukraine’s most experienced and best-equipped soldiers have fought Moscow-backed separatists there for eight years.

Even with its setbacks, Russia continues to inflict death and destruction across Ukraine. Over the weekend, its forces hit a chemical plant and 11 high-rise buildings in Siverodonetsk, in the Donbas, the regional governor said. Gov. Serhii Haidaii said two people were killed in the shelling and warned residents still in the city to stay in underground shelters.

Russian missiles destroyed “military infrastructure facilities” in the Yavoriv district of western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, the governor of the Lviv region said. Lviv is a major gateway for the Western-supplied weapons Ukraine has acquired during the war.

The Ukrainian military said it held off a renewed Russian offensive in the Donetsk area of the Donbas. Russian troops also tried to advance near the eastern city of Izyum, but Ukrainian forces stopped them, the governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Oleh Sinegubov, reported.

And Ukraine blew up two railway bridges that had been seized by Russian forces in the eastern region of Luhansk, Ukraine’s Special Operations Command said Sunday. It posted a video of exploding bridges on Facebook. The command also said it destroyed Russian communication lines in the area to prevent Russia from bringing in more troops to attack the towns of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, it said.

The Ukrainian claims could not be independently verified, but Western officials also painted a somber picture for Russia.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update that the Russian army had lost up to one-third of the combat strength it committed to Ukraine in late February and was failing to gain any substantial territory.

“Under the current conditions, Russia is unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days,” the ministry said on Twitter.

The assessments of Russia’s war performance came as Russian troops retreated from around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which was a key military objective earlier in the war and was bombarded for weeks. The regional governor said there had been no shelling in the city for several days, though Russia continued to strike the wider Kharkiv region.

One Ukrainian battalion that had been fighting in the region reached the border with Russia on Sunday and made a victorious video there addressed to Zelenskyy.

In the video posted on Facebook by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, a dozen fighters stood around a blue-and-yellow post, Ukraine’s colors.

One explained that the unit went “to the dividing line with the Russian Federation, the occupying country. Mr. President, we have reached it. We are here.”

Other fighters made victory signs and raised their fists.

Despite the continuing threat of missile attacks, many people were returning home to Kharkiv and other cities around Ukraine, said Anna Malyar, deputy head of the Ministry of Defense, on Sunday. Refugees were returning not just because of optimism that the war might ebb.

“Living somewhere just like that, not working, paying for housing, eating … they are forced to return for financial reasons,” she said in remarks carried by the RBK-Ukraine news agency.

In the southern Donbas, the Azov Sea port of Mariupol is now largely under Russian control, except for several hundred Ukrainian troops who have refused to surrender and remain holed up in the Azovstal steel factory.

Many of their wives called on the global community to secure the release of “the entire garrison,” during an online news conference. The women said the troops suffered severe food, water and medicine shortages; untreated injuries were sometimes leading to sepsis.

The Ukrainian prosecutor-general’s office said regional prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Moscow’s alleged use of restricted incendiary bombs at the steelworks. International law allows certain use of incendiary munitions but bars their use to directly target enemy personnel or civilians.

Turkey’s presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said the country had offered to evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers and civilians by ship from Azovstal, according to official state broadcaster TRT.

The invasion of Ukraine has other countries along Russia’s flank worried they could be next, including Finland, which shares both a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) land border and the Gulf of Finland with Russia. Putin told Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in a Saturday phone call that joining NATO would be an “error.”

In Sweden, after the ruling Social Democratic Party on Sunday backed plans to join NATO, the plan was to be discussed Monday in parliament, with an announcement by the Cabinet to follow.

However, NATO operates by consensus, and the Nordic nations’ potential bids were thrown into question over concerns from Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he had discussed Turkey’s concerns at the NATO meeting, especially Sweden and Finland’s alleged support for Kurdish rebel groups and their restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey.

But during a Sunday visit to Sweden, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Finland and Sweden would be “important additions” to NATO and that the U.S. should swiftly ratify their membership. McConnell is leading a delegation of GOP senators to the region. They made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday in a show of support.

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McQuillan reported from Lviv. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov and Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Elena Becatoros in Odesa and other AP staffers around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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