Summary
Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We will be pausing our live reporting overnight and returning in the morning.
- Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed a trilateral memorandum, paving the way forward for the two Nordic countries to join Nato.
- The agreement involves Finland and Sweden lifting their arms embargo, amending their laws on terrorism, supporting Turkey in its conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (YKK) and stop supporting the party’s Syrian affiliate People’s Protection Forces (YPG).
- Rescuers continue to work through the devastation left behind by the Russian missile strike on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk yesterday that has so far left at least 20 people dead. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy published another video from the attack as he once again derided the strike as an act of terrorism. At least 21 people remain missing.
- Zelenskiy described the attack on Kremenchuk as “one of the most defiant terrorist attacks in European history”. “A peaceful city, an ordinary shopping mall with women, children, ordinary civilians inside,” he said. “Only totally insane terrorists, who should have no place on earth, can strike missiles at such an object. And this is not an off-target missile strike, this is a calculated Russian strike – exactly at this shopping mall.”
- The president reiterated those remarks at the UN security council meeting that was held today to discuss Russia’s attacks on civilians.
President @ZelenskyyUa suggested introducing the term of "terrorist state" at the urgent meeting of UN Security Council.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 28, 2022
"I call upon you to deprive the delegation of a terrorist state of powers in UN General Assembly, and it's possible."#RussiaIsATerroristState pic.twitter.com/4wnIRGQrwb
- Russia’s ministry of defence has claimed that the fire in the shopping mall in Kremenchuk was caused by “the detonation of stored ammunition for western weapons”. No evidence was offered to back up the claim. G7 leaders called the strike a “war crime” and condemned it as an “abominable attack”.
- Ukraine has tracked 2,811 Russian missiles that have been fired on Ukrainian cities since 24 February. A missile strike tonight on Kharkiv, a city that has been hit hard in recent weeks, has left the region in flames. Yesterday, a strike on Kharkiv killed five and wounded 19.
- In the Donetsk oblast, at least two were killed and 15 were wounded in Russian shelling.
- Ihor Kolykhaiev, mayor of Kherson, was arrested by Russian forces on Tuesday, according to an adviser to the mayor. Galina Lyashevskaya posted to Facebook that Kolykhaiev had visited a utility facility and was detained as he got out of a car by armed national guards, “most likely the FSB”. Lyashevskaya said hard drives were seized from computers, safes were opened, and guards searched for documents. She said Kolykhaiev was kept in a separate office while this happened, and was handcuffed in the presence of armed guards. Lyashevskaya said the mayor was then put “on the Z bus and taken away”.
Authorities have updated the death toll for the Russian missile strike on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk: at least 20 people were killed and 59 were injured, according to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
At least 20 people were killed and 59 injured as a result of attack.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 28, 2022
"They wanted to kill as many people as possible in a peaceful city, in a regular shopping mall," Zelensky said.
Video: Volodymyr Zelensky/YouTube
Updated
