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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Vivian Ho (now); Geneva Abduland Martin Belam and Samantha Lock (earlier)

Russia-Ukraine war: At least two killed after Russian shelling in Donetsk – as it happened

Ukraine Kremenchuk United Kingdom Russia United States Missile Vladimir Putin NATO Volodymyr Zelenksyy Dmitry Medvedev

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.
  • 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.

Updated

Ukraine has tallied up the number of Russian missiles fired on Ukrainian cities since 24 February: 2,811.

The UN security council met today to discuss Russia’s attacks on civilians, which included, just yesterday, a missile attack on a crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk that killed at least 18, a targeted missile strike on civilians collecting water in Lysychansk that killed at least eight and widespread hit on Kharkiv that killed at least five.

Today so far

  • 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 18 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.
  • A missile strike tonight on Kharkiv, a city that has been hit hard in recent weeks, has left the region in flames.
  • In the Donetsk oblast, at least two were killed and 15 were wounded in Russian shelling.

Updated

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy published another video of the Russian missile strike on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk that killed at least 18. Authorities estimate that anywhere between 200 to 1,000 people were inside at the time of the strike – 21 people are still missing.

“Russia will bear responsibility for this act of state terrorism on the battlefield in Ukraine, face tightening sanctions and definitely tribunal,” Zelenskiy said.

Updated

After rescuers in Kharkiv spent the day cleaning up debris from previous attacks, another missile strike has sparked a fire in the city:

Kharkiv has been hard hit in recent weeks – a Russian missile strike yesterday killed at least five and wounded 19. Here are some images of the destruction:

Ukrainian rescuers clean debris at a school hit by shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian rescuers clean debris at a school hit by shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Sergey Kozlov/EPA
Kharkiv and surrounding areas have been the target of increased shelling and airstrikes by the Russian forces.
Kharkiv and surrounding areas have been the target of increased shelling and airstrikes by the Russian forces. Photograph: Sergey Kozlov/EPA
Rescuers work on the ruins of a school building, partially destroyed by two rockets.
Rescuers work on the ruins of a school building, partially destroyed by two rockets. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images
Rescuers clean debris at a school destroyed by rockets in Kharkiv.
Rescuers clean debris at a school destroyed by rockets in Kharkiv. Photograph: Sergey Kozlov/EPA

Updated

Sweden: 'The sooner the better' for Nato membership for Sweden and Finland

Magdalena Andersson, prime minister of Sweden, told the Associated Press that the trilateral agreement that her country and Finland has signed with Turkey, allowing for Sweden and Finland’s Nato membership, will bring “more security” to the alliance.

“It’s good for Finland and Sweden. And it’s good for Nato, because we would be security providers to Nato,” she said. Completing the process of membership should be done “the sooner the better, not only for Sweden and Finland but for other Nato countries”, Andersson said.

“But there are 30 parliaments that need to approve this and you never know,” Andersson added.

Asked if the Swedish public will see the agreement as a concession on issues like extraditions of Kurdish militants regarded by Ankara as terrorists, Andersson said Swedes “will see that this is good for the security of Sweden”.

Andersson said she wasn’t too worried about Moscow reacting badly to Tuesday’s agreement. “Russia has reacted rather mildly so far,” Andersson said. “Maybe they see the fact that we have been a partner to Nato for quite some time ... that maybe they don’t see this as quite such a big step.”

Updated

World leaders celebrate Nato trilateral agreement

World leaders have been sounding off on the news of the trilateral agreement signed by Finland, Sweden and Turkey that will enable the two Nordic countries to join Nato:

Updated

Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a trilateral agreement that lifts Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining Nato and brings the two Nordic countries a step closer to membership.

Read more about the agreement here:

Updated

Here is a statement from Sauli Niinistö, president of Finland, on the steps taken with Turkey to enable Finland and Sweden to join Nato.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk oblast, reports that two were killed and 15 wounded in Russian shelling today in the region.

Stoltenberg: 'We now have an agreement' for Finland, Sweden to join Nato

Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general for Nato, has announced that talks were successful with Turkey and that Finland and Sweden are now set to join the alliance.

“I am pleased to announce we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join Nato,” Stoltenberg said.

Turkey drops opposition to Finland and Sweden joining Nato

Turkey has dropped its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining Nato, according to the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, and the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö.

Turkey’s stance has been one of the major obstacles in the way of the two Nordic countries joining the alliance, with officials previously stating that they were willing to delay membership for more than a year unless they received satisfactory assurances that Finland and Sweden were willing to address support for Kurdish groups that Turkey regards as terrorist organisations.

More to come.

Updated

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, has made a powerful plea to the Nato leaders meeting in Madrid to provide Ukraine with “whatever it takes” to stop the war, the Associated Press is reporting.

“Wake up, guys. This is happening now. You are going to be next; this is going to be knocking on your door just in the blink of an eye,” Klitschko told reporters on Tuesday.

Klitschko rejected the idea that Ukraine should make any territorial sacrifices to end the war.

“Bully the bully, it’s the only way how to stop it,” he said. “And in this case, Russia is the bully.”

Updated

The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters aboard Air Force One today that the US is actively trying to resolve the detention of basketball star Brittney Griner in Russia, Reuters is reporting.

Griner has been held in Russia since February after officials alleged that they found hashish oil in vape cartridges in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison for the offence. In May, the US government officially deemed her wrongfully detained.

“The Russian government should release her and allow her to be returned and reunited with her family and come home safe and sound,” Sullivan said.

Updated

The former deputy commander of Nato and former British general Sir Alexander Richard Shirreff has told Sky News that to make Nato’s 300,000 troops effective will require rearmament, increased defence budgets, and rebuilding lost capabilities.

On Monday, Nato announced it would boost the number of troops on high readiness by more than seven-fold to over 300,000.

“There is always the risk of Russian escalation,” added Shirreff, who said the alliance has taken a risk by providing the weaponry and support that it “needs to” supply to Ukraine.

Shirreff called the summit the most important in the more than 70 years of Nato, and the move by the alliance a “fundamental mindset change”.

Updated

G7 leaders had productive discussions with China and India about a plan to cap the price of Russian oil, a source familiar with discussions told Reuters.

While the price-per-barrel cap level has not yet been determined, the source said it would have to be high enough to incentivise Russia to keep producing oil.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke with Belize’s prime minister, John Briceño, on Tuesday for the first time.

The president said Belize agreed to support Ukraine in the United Nations and at regional platforms.

Updated

‘There could be children’: search continues amid Kremenchuk rubble

Twenty-four hours after two Russian X-22 cruise missiles hit a crowded shopping centre in Kremenchuk, small plumes of black smoke could still be seen rising from the smoking ruins. Dozens of people who feared their loved ones had been inside the building when the deadly explosions ripped through it looked on in grim silence as a giant crane removed sections of the collapsed roof, exposing blackened debris and twisted metal underneath.

Volodymyr Vasylenko, 61, born and raised in Kremunchuk arrived on Tuesday morning at the site of the attack, to leave some flowers among the rubble.
Volodymyr Vasylenko, 61, born and raised in Kremunchuk arrived on Tuesday morning at the site of the attack, to leave some flowers among the rubble. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Away from onlookers, rescue workers had placed a stretcher on which they carefully placed fragments of charred human remains found in the rubble.

Authorities estimate there were between 200 and 1,000 people inside at the time of the attack. Many managed to flee to a nearby bomb shelter when they heard the air raid sirens. Others did not make it in time and remained trapped inside. At least 18 people were killed and 21 are still missing.

Read more here:

Updated

The Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik has asked “democratic countries not to delay in supplying weapons”, after the Russian missile attack on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk yesterday, and six missile attacks in Dnipro today.

Updated

CCTV footage shows panic in a park in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, moments after the nearby Amstor shopping centre was hit by a Russian missile strike. The location of the video was verified by matching buildings and roads to satellite and file imagery.

Updated

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the newswires.

Charred goods in a grocery store of the destroyed Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk, Ukraine
Charred goods in a grocery store of the destroyed Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
The actor and director Sean Penn, right, attends a meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, centre, in Kyiv
The actor and director Sean Penn, right, attends a meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, centre, in Kyiv. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters
A man who was injured in the strike on the Kremenchuk shopping centre receives treatment at a hospital in the city
A man who was injured in the strike on the Kremenchuk shopping centre receives treatment at a hospital in the city. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA
Fragments of a missile are laid out on a table, as workers and rescuers clear rubble from the Kremenchuk shopping centre
Fragments of a missile are laid out on a table, as workers and rescuers clear rubble from the Kremenchuk shopping centre. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
A woman at the central post office of Odesa holds up a sheet of new stamps commemorating Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion
A woman at the central post office of Odesa holds up a sheet of new stamps commemorating Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. Photograph: EPA

Updated

The horror that unfolded when a Russian missile struck a shopping mall in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was shown around the world. But if you were watching Russian television that day, you would probably have seen nothing about it.

The Russian media blackout on the attack, which left at least 18 people dead, according to the Ukrainian government, is part of a playbook on how similar attacks have been handled as the Kremlin tries to present itself as a liberating force that does not harm civilians.

And with images of charred bodies emerging in the foreign press, Russian officials began to declare the strike a “Bucha-like provocation”, disregarding evidence of war crimes amid growing international isolation.

Read more here:

Updated

The governor of Dnipropetrovsk has accused Russia of firing six missiles at the region. Valentyn Reznichenko posted to Telegram:

Mass enemy attack on Dnipropetrovsk region. Six rockets !!!

Our missiles shot down three missiles – over the Dnieper and over the Synelnykiv district. In the Dnieper, due to “arrivals”, the railway infrastructure and the industrial enterprise were destroyed.

The service company is on fire. Rescuers are working at the site of the strikes. They are looking for people under the rubble.

In Synelnykivskyi district, the scale of the destruction is being clarified.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Updated

Bulgaria announces expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats

The Bulgarian foreign ministry has ordered Russia to reduce its diplomatic staff in Bulgaria to the same level as Bulgarian diplomatic missions in Russia. This includes up to 23 diplomatic and 25 administrative and technical staff, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The 70 Russian diplomats were instructed to leave by midnight on 3 July.

Updated

Today so far …

  • At least 21 people are still missing after a Russian missile hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, Ukrainian prosecutors have told the Guardian. About 18 people are believed to have been killed. Military personnel, volunteers, firefighters and police have been working non-stop to recover bodies from the rubble. Authorities estimate there were between 200 and 1,000 people inside the mall that afternoon.
  • 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 leaders of the G7 said Vladimir Putin’s strike aimed at civilians were a “war crime” and condemned the “abominable attack” in Kremenchuk. “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,” a statement read. They said they would “continue to provide financial, humanitarian as well as military support for Ukraine, for as long as it takes”.
  • British government minister Chris Philp said the strike was “terrorism” and illustrated there was “no end to Putin’s barbarity”. He said it was “part of a consistent pattern of atrocities being committed by the Russian government.”
  • 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.
  • Kherson’s mayor, Ihor Kolykhaiev, 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”.
  • Russian shelling of a residential area in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, killed at least five civilians on Monday, the regional governor said. A further 19 people were wounded in the attack, Oleh Synehubov said.
  • A Russian missile attack also killed at least eight civilians and wounded 21 in Ukraine’s eastern Lysychansk region. “Today, when the civilian people were collecting water from a water tank, the Russians aimed at the crowd,” Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, said on Telegram.
  • During a visit to Turkmenistan, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said the more that western countries send weapons to Ukraine, the longer the conflict will last.
  • Russian forces are being increasingly hollowed out, have degraded combat effectiveness and only achieved tactical success at Sievierodonetsk despite fielding the core elements of six different armies, according to the latest UK Ministry of Defence intelligence briefing.
  • The US state department has spoken by telephone to an Alabama man who was recently captured in Ukraine while voluntarily helping the country’s armed forces fight Russian invaders, according to his family. Alexander Drueke told the state department that “he is OK, receiving food and water and has shelter and bedding”, his aunt Dianna Shaw said on Monday night.
  • The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would meet the US president, Joe Biden, at the Nato summit this week and discuss what he said was Washington’s “stalling” over Ankara’s request to purchase new F-16 fighter jets. Erdoğan also said Finland and Sweden must take Turkey’s concerns into consideration and deliver not only words but results if they wanted to be Nato members.
  • Any encroachment on the Crimea peninsula by a Nato member state could amount to a declaration of war on Russia and could lead to “World War Three”, Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev was quoted as saying on Monday. “For us, Crimea is a part of Russia. And that means for ever. Any attempt to encroach on Crimea is a declaration of war against our country. And if this is done by a Nato member state, this means conflict with the entire North Atlantic alliance; a World War Three. A complete catastrophe,” Medvedev told the Russian news website Argumenty i Fakty.

Updated

US targets Russian gold and defence industry in new sanctions

The US has banned the import of new Russian gold, the country’s biggest non-energy export, and imposed sanctions on more than 100 targets.

Sanctions were imposted on 70 entities, many critical to Russia’s defence, in addition to 29 people, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

In the statement, treasury secretary Janet Yellen said:

Targeting Russia’s defence industry will degrade (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s capabilities and further impede his war against Ukraine, which has already been plagued by poor morale, broken supply chains, and logistical failures.

Among those sanctions was Russia’s state aerospace conglomerate, Rostec, and a maker of Russian fighter jets, United Aircraft Corporation.

The announcement comes as the US Department of State imposes sanctions on an additional 45 entities, 29 individuals, and more than 500 Russian Federation military officers and on Russian Federation officials “involved in suppressing dissent”.

Updated

Diageo, maker of brands from Guinness to Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka, will wind down its operations in Russia, Reuters reports.

The spirits group is the latest western company to withdraw following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. The decision comes after its last annual report trumpeted a sales increase in eastern Europe “mainly driven by strong growth in Russia”.

A spokesperson said in a statement:

Our focus will remain on supporting our employees in the region and providing them with enhanced redundancy terms, while ensuring we comply with local regulations.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters, Diageo, which stopped shipping to and selling goods in Russia in March, will retain a business licence there that requires a number of employees to remain.

Updated

Lorenzo Tondo is in Kremenchuk:

Nato 'disappointed' by China's stance on Russian invasion

Speaking on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Madrid, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he does not see China as an adversary but Nato is concerned about Beijing’s ever closer ties with Moscow, Reuters reports.

While noting that China would soon be the world’s biggest economy, and Nato needed to engage with Beijing on issues like climate change, Stoltenberg said:

We don’t regard China as an adversary, but we are disappointed by the fact that China has not been able to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that China is spreading many of the false narratives about Nato, the west, and also that China and Russia are more close now than they have ever been before.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Keir Giles works with the Russia and Eurasia programme of Chatham House, and has written for us today, arguing that Putin needs a drawn-out war and the west’s timidity gives him one:

The west’s clearly stated fear of escalation proves to Russia that threats work, regardless of how implausible they may be or how often they have been shown to be empty. By now it’s a tediously repetitive cycle of promises of nuclear annihilation for whoever has most recently upset Russia’s propagandists – for example Russian state TV recently discussed attacking the Netherlands. Russia’s nuclear threats will continue for as long as they are effective in preventing Ukraine being provided with war-winning military support.

The G7 may have made the right noises about support for Ukraine continuing “for as long as it takes”, but Ukraine’s biggest challenge remains trying to persuade its international backers to match words with deeds.

In addition there is a striking mismatch of aims and priorities between the two sides. While Russia has clearly laid out what it wants from the war – the extinction of Ukraine as an independent nation and the restoration of Russian imperial power over its neighbours – Ukraine’s western backers are confused and divided over how they want the war to end, and what they want to happen to Russia as a result.

Read more here: Keir Giles – Putin needs a drawn-out war and the west’s timidity gives him one

Updated

Russian hacker group Killnet has told Reuters that it was continuing a major cyber-attack on Lithuania in retaliation for Vilnius’s decision to cease the transit of some goods under European Union sanctions to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

Lithuania’s prime minister, Ingrida Simonyte, told reporters in Vilnius her government institutions are working 24 hours per day to “fix the problems as they are found”.

“This is not the first attack. We have experienced many cyber-attacks beginning with 24 February,” she said, referring to the day Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began.

The earlier attacks included intense scanning for vulnerabilities in government’s computers, the PM said.

Updated

The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour offers this analysis of the outcomes of the G7 summit:

With the summit taking place at the same time as an attack on a kindergarten in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and a missile strike on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk that killed at least 18 people and which the G7 described as a war crime, the leaders will hope the summit managed to show the resolve, unity and practical steps required to weaken the Russian president’s war machine. [German chancellor Olaf] Scholz insisted the rest of the world was watching Putin’s brutal assault on the civilian population of Ukraine.

However, disagreements at the summit continued right until the end on the key issue of finding a way to reduce the flow of cash into the Kremlin from western consumption of Russian energy. Germany fears that a cap on the price of oil or gas would lead to a complete cut-off of Russian energy supplies, and European industrial meltdown as a consequence. Others, especially the Americans, say the plan is workable.

The G7 pledged “to take immediate action to secure energy supply and reduce price surges driven by extraordinary market conditions, including by exploring additional measures such as price caps”.

The wording allows further work to be undertaken on complementary US ideas for an oil price cap and an Italian plan for a gas price cap. Russia has already warned of retaliation if the west tries to manipulate energy prices to below the market level.

Read more of Patrick Wintour’s expert analysis here: Response to Russia’s war in Ukraine dominates G7 summit

Updated

Photojournalist Alessio Mamo was at the scene after the Russian missile attack on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, on Monday. Here is a selection of the photos of the aftermath.

The US state department has spoken by telephone to an Alabama man who was recently captured in Ukraine while voluntarily helping the country’s armed forces fight Russian invaders, according to his family.

Alexander Drueke told the state department that “he is OK, receiving food and water and has shelter and bedding”, Dianna Shaw, his aunt, said late on Monday.

“We want to believe all these things, and it’s Russia’s responsibility to make sure it’s all true,” Shaw added. “Having Alex call and say these things tells me that Russia knows the world is watching how they treat” him and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, another Alabama man recently captured in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Drueke’s mother thanked Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for hailing her son and Huynh as heroes as well as promising to fight for their release from prison.

Read more of Ramon Antonio Vargas’ report: US state department spoke by phone to veteran captured in Ukraine, family says

Updated

The UK’s prime minister is expected to ditch his manifesto commitment to increase the defence budget by at least 0.5% above inflation every year, putting Boris Johnson on a potential collision course with his defence secretary, Ben Wallace.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Munich Airport after leaving the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Munich Airport after leaving the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Wallace, who is joining Johnson at the Nato summit in Madrid this week, has reportedly written to the prime minister to call for the defence budget to be increased to 2.5% of GDP by 2028. It is currently just over 2.1%.

Read more from my colleagues Peter Walker and Dan Sabbagh:

Updated

Russia’s foreign minister has said the more western countries send weapons to Ukraine, the longer the conflict will last, Reuters reports.

Speaking from a news conference during a visit to Turkmenistan, Sergei Lavrov also said Russia did not target the shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday.

Earlier the Guardian reported at least 21 people are still missing after the missile strike. Eighteen are believed to have been killed.

Updated

Russian forces arrest Ukrainian mayor in Kherson, adviser says

Kherson’s mayor, Ihor Kolykhaiev, was arrested by Russian forces on Tuesday, according to an adviser to the mayor, Galina Lyashevskaya.

“They took Igor Kolykhaev” she wrote on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon.

In another post, she wrote Kolykhaiev visited a utility facility when leaving a car, was immediately detained by armed national guards, “most likely the FSB”.

Lyashevskaya said hard drives were seized from computers, safes were opened, and guards searched for documents. During this time, she wrote Kolykhaiev was kept in a separate office, and handcuffed in the presence of armed guards.

After the search, Lyashevskaya said the mayor was put “on the Z bus and taken away”.

Lyashevskaya wrote:

A few days ago, Kolykhaiev received a letter from the ‘newly-appointed’ mayor, where he invited him to discuss the future ‘organisation of interaction’. For refusing to meet, he threatened with arrest. Kolykhaiev did not go.W e are all in danger. Everything is under attack. I fear for the life of Igor Kolykhaiev.

Updated

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the newswires.

Rescuers rest at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike.
Rescuers rest at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike. Photograph: Reuters
Rescuers work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike.
Rescuers work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike. Photograph: Reuters
A woman lights a candle near the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine.
A woman lights a candle near the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA
Rescuers and service members work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike.
Rescuers and service members work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike. Photograph: Reuters
Sand bags protect a monument in Kyiv.
Sand bags protect a monument in Kyiv. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AP

Updated

Here’s footage of the shopping centre in the city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, hit by a Russian missile on Monday. The attack killed and injured scores of people.

Boris Johnson said G7 leaders agreed to “give Ukrainians the strategic endurance they need to try and shift the dial”.

Speaking with Sky News from Germany, as the G7 summit draws to a close, the UK prime minister said this is what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, “wants us to do”.

Earlier, the chief of general staff, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, said Britain is facing its “1937 moment”.

When asked of Sanders’ remarks and whether Britain is preparing for war with Russia, Johnson replied: “I don’t think it will come to that.” Johnson added that leaders were “clearly” working very hard to confine the conflict.

Johnson said:

Putin and the Kremlin are going to try to widen the conflict, and say this is something between Nato and Russia. That’s not it at all. This is about an invasion of an independent, sovereign country. It’s about the west and all the friends of Ukraine giving them the support that they need to protect themselves.

Updated

G7 leaders agree to explore cap on Russian oil price

As the summit of the Group of Seven economic powers draws to a close leaders agreed to explore imposing a ban on transporting Russian oil been sold above a certain price, reports Reuters.

“We invite all like-minded countries to consider joining us in our actions,” the G7 leaders said in the communique.

The price cap would be a way to prevent Russia from profiting from its Ukraine invasion, which has skyrocketed energy prices. A senior US administration official said the price cap would squeeze Putin’s resources and “increase stability and the security of supply in global oil markets”.

G7 leaders also agreed to push for a ban on Russian gold imports.

Updated

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the G7 “stands together in their support for Ukraine.”

Speaking from the Bavarian Alps in Germany, Scholz added:

We agree that president Putin must not win this war, and we will continue to support and we will continue to drive the cost high, economically and politically for president Putin.”

Scholz said leaders will also counter the “Russian narrative” that only the global west contends their aggression. He said talks revealed that is “not the case.”

Addressing European leaders, Scholz said in addition to providing humanitarian and military support, additional money needs to be mobilised for Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction.

“We need a plan,” he said. “This needs to be planned well, and developed well.”

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a statement on June 28, 2022 at Elmau Castle, southern Germany.
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a statement on June 28, 2022 at Elmau Castle, southern Germany. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images

Ukrainian forces will try to hold the line against Russian forces from the city of Lysychansk, buying time for the arrival of western weapons, said Luhansk’s governor.

In an interview, governor Serhiy Haidai said Moscow’s forces are trying to surround the city, which is a vital stronghold for Kyiv, Reuters reports.

Haidai said:

They’ll achieve nothing in several days (in Lysychansk) like they’re saying (they will). The geography of (Lysychansk) is difficult. It’s very spread out. It has a private (residential) sector, there are nine-storey apartment blocks, it has drops, there are lowlands and there are rises.

He added: “Our task is to hold back the enemy as long as possible and to inflict maximum damage on them … As long as Russia’s army remains in one place, time is on our side. We will receive weapons from the west.”

Haidai said western arm supplies were “helping” but are “far from the critical amount” needed.

Updated

Today so far …

  • At least 21 people are still missing after a Russian missile hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, Ukrainian prosecutors have told the Guardian. About 18 people are believed to have been killed. Military personnel, volunteers, firefighters and police have been working non-stop to recover bodies from the rubble. Authorities estimate there were between 200 and 1000 people inside the mall that afternoon.
  • 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 leaders of the G7 said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attacks aimed at civilians were a “war crime” and condemned the “abominable attack” in Kremenchuk. “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,” a statement read. They said they would “continue to provide financial, humanitarian as well as military support for Ukraine, for as long as it takes”.
  • British government minister Chris Philp said that the strike was “terrorism” and illustrated there was “no end to Putin’s barbarity”. He said it was “part of a consistent pattern of atrocities being committed by the Russian government”.
  • 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.
  • Russian shelling of a residential area in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, killed at least five civilians on Monday, the regional governor said. A further 19 people were wounded in the attack, Oleh Synehubov said.
  • A Russian missile attack also killed at least eight civilians and wounded 21 in Ukraine’s eastern Lysychansk region. “Today, when the civilian people were collecting water from a water tank, the Russians aimed at the crowd,” Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk governor, said on Telegram.
  • Russian forces are being increasingly hollowed out, have degraded combat effectiveness and only achieved tactical success at Sievierodonetsk despite fielding the core elements of six different armies, according to the latest UK Ministry of Defence intelligence briefing.
  • German chancellor Olaf Scholz said there can be no return to prewar ties with Russia. Scholz said after the G7 summit that with its attack on Ukraine, Russia had broken “all the rules, all the agreements we have made with each other on countries’ cooperation”. He said G7 leaders agreed that it had led to long-term changes “which will mark international relations for a very, very long time. So it is clear that, in relations with Russia, there can be no way back to the time before the Russian attack on Ukraine.”
  • The UN security council will meet on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s targeted attacks on civilians at the request of Ukraine.
  • Nato will boost the number of troops on high alert more than sevenfold to over 300,000 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the military alliance’s forces in the Baltic states and five other frontline countries would be increased “up to brigade levels” – doubled or trebled to between 3,000 and 5,000 troops. That would amount to “the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the cold war”, he said.
  • Zelenskiy has said of the Nato summit in Madrid this week that he has spoken to secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
  • Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan said he would meet US president Joe Biden at the Nato summit this week and discuss what he said was Washington’s “stalling” of Ankara’s request to purchase new F-16 fighter jets. Erdoğan also said Finland and Sweden must take Turkey’s concerns into consideration and deliver not only words but results if they wanted to be Nato members.
  • The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has reportedly written to the prime minister to call for the defence budget to be increased to 2.5% of GDP by 2028. The leaked request, first reported by Talk TV, emerged on the eve of the Nato summit in Madrid, which will discuss the renewed threat posed by Russia and the anticipated commitment of hundreds more British troops to the defence of Estonia.
  • Any encroachment on the Crimea peninsula by a Nato member-state could amount to a declaration of war on Russia that could lead to “world war three”, Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, was quoted as saying on Monday. “For us, Crimea is a part of Russia. And that means forever. Any attempt to encroach on Crimea is a declaration of war against our country. And if this is done by a Nato member-state, this means conflict with the entire North Atlantic alliance; a world war three. A complete catastrophe,” Medvedev told the Russian news website Argumenty i Fakty.
  • The US is planning to buy and send more medium- to long-range missile systems to Ukraine, including Nasams, an advanced surface-to-air missile system, according to defence officials. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, confirmed on Monday the US is in the process of finalising a package that includes advanced air defence capabilities.
  • Putin and his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, discussed global food security and confirmed their intention to strengthen their strategic partnership, the Kremlin said on Monday. Putin assured Bolsonaro in a phone call that Russia would fulfil all its obligations to supply fertilisers to Brazil, the Kremlin said in a statement as reported by Reuters.

Updated

Ukraine interior minister: 21 people still missing after Kremenchuk attack

Pjotr Sauer reports from Kyiv:

Ukraine’s interior minister Denys Monastyrskiy said in a briefing that 21 people were still missing after the attack on the Kremenchuk shopping centre.

“We have the bodies of 18 people, 21 people are still missing,” Monastyrskiy said, adding that some of the missing people could be among the 18 bodies that have been found.

Updated

There have been a series of diplomatic noises involving Sweden, Finland, Turkey, the US and membership of Nato this morning, ahead of the Madrid Nato summit.

Reuters reports Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan said he would meet US president Joe Biden at the summit this week and discuss what he said was Washington’s “stalling” of Ankara’s request to purchase new F-16 fighter jets. The White House has confirmed that the two leaders will meet.

Erdoğan also said Finland and Sweden must take Turkey’s concerns into consideration and deliver not only words but results if they wanted to be Nato members.

Updated

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine and beyond over the newswires.

A handout picture taken and released by Ukraine’s state emergency service shows rescuers working in the wreckage of a mall in Kremenchuk, the day after it was hit by a Russian missile strike.
A handout picture taken and released by Ukraine’s state emergency service shows rescuers working in the wreckage of a mall in Kremenchuk, the day after it was hit by a Russian missile strike. Photograph: Ukrainian state emergency service/AFP/Getty Images
A police officer inspects what is claimed to be a fragment of a Russian rocket stuck in a tree trunk about 300 metres from deadly attack at a Kremenchuk shopping centre.
A police officer inspects what is claimed to be a fragment of a Russian rocket stuck in a tree trunk about 300 metres from the attack on a Kremenchuk shopping centre. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
A woman lights a candle for the victims at the Kremenchuk shopping centre.
A woman lights a candle for the victims of the Kremenchuk shopping centre attack. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands talk to refugees from Ukraine during a visit of the community cooking project at Brotfabrik in Vienna, Austria.
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands talk to refugees from Ukraine during a visit of the community cooking project at Brotfabrik in Vienna, Austria. Photograph: Heinz-Peter Bader/Getty Images
A damaged house stands in Irpin, Ukraine.
A damaged house stands in Irpin, Ukraine. Photograph: Future Publishing/Ukrinform/Getty Images
Destruction caused by rocket and air attacks on the Irpin Lypky residential complex, Irpin.
Destruction caused by rocket and air attacks on the Irpin Lypky residential complex. Photograph: Future Publishing/Ukrinform/Getty Images

Updated

The UK’s foreign secretary has tweeted this morning to say that she has been speaking to Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal.

Liz Truss wrote:

Important call with prime minister Denys Shmyhal this morning to discuss the latest situation and the Ukraine recovery conference next week. The UK stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and we will work with them to support their reconstruction plans.

Updated

Russia imposes sanctions on wife and daughter of US President

Russia has imposed sanctions on the wife and daughter of US president Joe Biden, Reuters reports.

Dr Jill Biden and Ashley Biden are among 25 US citizens on an expanded sanctions list, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The step was taken “as a response to the ever-expanding US sanctions against Russian political and public figures”, Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

In April, the US announced sanctions targeting two daughters of the Russian president Vladimir Putin – Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova. The two adult daughters of Putin’s former wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva were targeted for “full blocking” sanctions along with the wife and daughter of the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and members of Russia’s security council, including the former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Updated

18 dead, 36 missing as rescuers work to recover bodies from Kremenchuk shopping centre rubble

Lorenzo Tondo reports from Kremenchuk:

At least 36 people are still missing after a Russian missile hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, Ukrainian prosecutors have told the Guardian.

About 18 people are believed to have been killed. Military personnel, volunteers, firefighters and police have been working non-stop to recover bodies from the rubble. Authorities estimate there were between 200 and 1000 people inside the mall that afternoon. Many managed to flee to a nearby bomb shelter when they heard the air raid sirens. Others didn’t make it in time and remained trapped in the building.

“I left the building two minutes before the explosion’’, Yevhenia Semyonova, 38, a shop assistant at a sportswear shop inside the mall told the Guardian.

“My colleagues who are working in bigger stores, like the supermarket for example, had to wait for the customers to get out before they could leave. We were lucky because there were no customers in our story during the alarm.

“At the beginning of the war, all the shops stopped working during air sirens. But eventually people got used to it and started ignoring the sirens. Unfortunately that’s what happened yesterday too. A lot of people I know and some friends are still missing.”

Search operations continue at the Kremenchuk shopping centre struck by Russian missiles.
Search operations continue at the Kremenchuk shopping centre struck by Russian missiles. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Russia: shopping centre fire caused by 'detonation of stored ammunition for western weapons'

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.

In its daily operation briefing, the ministry says:

The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to strike at military facilities on the territory of Ukraine. On 27 June, in the city of Kremenchuk, the Russian aerospace forces delivered a strike with high-precision air-based weapons on hangars with weapons and ammunition received from the United States and European countries.

As a result of a high-precision strike, western-made weapons and ammunition concentrated in a storage area for further shipment to the Ukrainian group of troops in Donbas were hit. The detonation of stored ammunition for western weapons caused a fire in a non-functioning shopping centre located next to the plant.

Yesterday, the ministry of defence suggested that the damage caused by Russian missiles in a residential area of Kyiv at the weekend was due to Ukrainians attempting to shoot it down, and that Russia does not target civilian areas.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said on Twitter ahead of the Nato summit in Madrid that he has spoken to secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. He writes:

Had a phone conversation with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. Coordinated positions on the eve of the Nato summit in Madrid. Stressed the importance of a powerful missile defence system for Ukraine to prevent Russian terrorist attacks.

Updated

36 people still missing in Kremenchuk following shopping centre strike

Lorenzo Tondo is in Kremenchuk:

Prosecutors have confirmed to the Guardian this morning that 36 people are still missing after the missile strike on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk yesterday.

Today is celebrated as constitution day in Ukraine, and the message posted this morning by the governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synyehubov, is typical of the kind of pro-constitution messages being issued by Ukraine’s civil leaders today. He has posted to Telegram to say:

Exactly 26 years ago, the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] of Ukraine adopted the basic law of our state, recognised by the Venice commission as one of the most democratic in Europe, because it concerns the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of citizens.

Today, when our country opposes the Russian invasion, the holiday of the constitution acquires special significance. The constitution is the main document of the country, the principles on which all our common life is built. And this is democracy, the rights and freedoms of the citizen and human life as the main value.

Since the days of the Cossacks, European ideals of freedom have been the cornerstone of Ukrainian identity. And today we are once again defending European ideals and our freedom with arms in hand.

Today, millions of Ukrainians fighting against Russian aggressors at the front and in the rear remind us that the constitution is not only a right and freedom, but also a duty to care for and protect the motherland. Happy constitution day! We will definitely win, because freedom always wins over slavery!

Updated

The Ukrainian authorities of Mariupol have posted a message from the city’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, expressing concern for the fate of the elderly in the city under the occupying forces of Russia. It quotes him saying:

People of respectable age were taken care of in Mariupol. They created conditions for them to meet a decent old age. But the Russian occupiers took it away from them. Instead, they are forced to somehow survive without quality medical care, without medication and care. Most of them are children of World War II, for whom the Russian occupiers repeated what the whole world says “never again.” Staying in the city is dangerous for their health, because they will be the first to suffer from infectious outbreaks.

The city authority says: “Most of those living in occupied Mariupol are elderly people. It is difficult to imagine how they survive in such conditions. Due to weak immunity, stress, lack of food, water and medication, their health is at risk.”

Updated

Jamie Shea, a former Nato official who was the alliance’s spokesperson during the 1999 Kosovo war, has been interviewed in the UK about the situation in Ukraine and Nato’s plans for greater combat readiness in Europe.

Asked on Sky News if yesterday’s missile strike on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk was terrorism, he said that was for international lawyers to decide, but “this is certainly a tactic to directly target civilians. It’s also a tactic to terrorise the civilian population.”

He went on to say: “I think it’s Putin’s way of showing that although we’ve had to refocus our military effort on the Donbas, because we weren’t successful in capturing Kyiv or Kharkiv in the early stages, we still have this intention of destroying Ukraine. And even if our troops can’t get to Kyiv, our missiles certainly can.”

He accused the Russian president of “a classical creeping aggression”, citing his moves against Georgia in 2008 and annexation of Crimea in 2014, saying: “We know clearly that Russia has designs on the Baltic states. Putin compared himself to Peter the Great, who expanded the Russian empire, just a couple of days ago.”

With regards to comparisons to the situation in the 1930s, Shea said: “Wherever they go, the Hitler analogy of not giving in to threats, or appeasement, or being prepared to draw a line in the sand, whether that analogy applies, I’ll leave that to the historians.

“But clearly, you’ve got to say there’s a major Russian threat against Nato, which was extremely low probability before 24 February. It’s now become much higher probability. Not inevitable, but higher probability. And Nato therefore has been taken from a rather sort of minimal level to a much greater war-fighting rapid reaction level.”

Updated

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv region, has posted his daily status update, which he begins by stating: “Russians are terrorists. This is a reminder. Kremenchuk, Lysychansk, Kharkiv region, we share your pain.”

Kozytskyi said the Lviv region had one air alert overnight, but “the danger did not materialise”. He says that 120 people arrived in Lviv yesterday via evacuation trains.

Updated

UK minister: Kremenchuk strike shows there is 'no end to Putin's barbarity'

A British government minister has said that the Russian missile strike yesterday on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk was “terrorism”. He said it illustrated there was “no end to Putin’s barbarity” and that it was “part of a consistent pattern of atrocities being committed by the Russian government”.

Speaking on Sky News in the UK, minister for the digital economy Chris Philp told viewers:

It is essential we stay with Ukraine, and throughout this invasion we do everything we can to support them. The UK has provided £1.3bn pounds-worth of support. We’ve provided 5,000 anti-tank missiles, we’ve provided anti aircraft missiles, we’ve provided anti-ship missiles. We’ve provided humanitarian aid. We’re offering to train 10,000 Ukrainian troops every 120 days. So we in the west, not just the UK, but the entire west, need to do everything we can to support Ukraine militarily in this dark hour which they face.

Philp ruled out again any prospect of British troops being deployed on Ukrainian soil, saying:

We’re not going to do that because we are worried about escalation. And in fact, if you talk to the Ukrainian government, their issue isn’t troops. They have a lot of volunteers, young men and women who are volunteering to defend their homeland, as I hope people here who were faced with a similar threat would. What they need is equipment.

Specifically on yesterday’s missile strike on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk, the minister said he considered it terrorism, adding:

I would go that far, and say that, because it is intentionally targeting civilians. There is no military necessity of bombing a shopping centre. Just as there was no military necessity to bombing a maternity hospital which we saw, or that theatre in Mariupol. We saw them bombing that theatre where civilians were taking shelter, it was clearly marked as containing civilians. So this is not a one-off act. This is part of a consistent pattern of atrocities being committed by the Russian government.

Updated

Russian forces are being increasingly hollowed out, have degraded combat effectiveness and only achieved tactical success at Sieverodonetsk despite fielding the core elements of six different armies, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

The latest British intelligence report reads:

Ukrainian forces continue to consolidate their positions on higher ground in the city of Lyschansak, after falling back from Sieverodonetsk.

Ukrainian forces continue to disrupt Russian command and control with successful strikes deep behind Russian lines.

Over 24-26 June, Russia launched unusually intense waves of strikes across Ukraine using long-range missiles. 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.

Similarly, it fielded the core elements of six different armies yet achieved only tactical success at Sieverodonetsk. The Russian armed forces are increasingly hollowed out.

They currently accept a level of degraded combat effectiveness, which is probably unsustainable in the long term.”

Updated

World leaders condemn ‘abominable’ Russian attack

Leaders around the world have been quick to denounce Russia’s deadly strike on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, as “abominable” and a war crime, amid growing international outrage at the attack.

In a joint statement, the leaders of the G7 condemned the “abominable attack” and noted that attacks aimed at civilians were a “war crime”.

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.

Today, we underlined our unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian aggression, an unjustified war of choice that has been raging for 124 days.”

They said they would “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.”

Separately, French president Emmanuel Macron called the attack an “abomination”, saying: “We share the pain of the victims’ families, and the anger in the face of such an atrocity. The Russian people have to see the truth:”

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “It is deplorable, to say the least. Any sort of civilian infrastructure, which includes obviously shopping malls, and civilians should never ever be targeted.”

Kremenchuk death toll rises to 18, officials say

The death toll from the Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in the central city of Kremenchuk has risen to 18, according to Ukrainian officials.

Search and rescue operations continue this morning as workers dismantle damaged building structures to look for those who may still be trapped by fallen debris.

Ukraine’s state emergency services provided an update about 7am local time, confirming that 18 people died in the attack, including one person who succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

A further 59 people sought medical help and 25 were admitted to intensive care at a hospital in Kremenchuk.

A total of 440 people (including 14 psychologists) and 70 units have been involved in the rescue work, the agency added.

Updated

Footage after a Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in the central city of Kremenchuk on Monday was shared earlier by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office.

The Russian attack killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more, a senior Ukrainian official said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said more than 1,000 people were inside when the missiles struck.

Russian missile strikes Kremenchuk shopping centre

Search and rescue teams are digging for those who remain trapped beneath the rubble of a shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk after the building was hit by a Russian missile on Monday.

Ukraine’s president, Volodoymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 1,000 people were inside the building at the time of the strike. Images from the scene showed giant plumes of black smoke and flames, with emergency crews rushing in to search for victims and put out fires.

Serhiy Kruk, the head of Ukraine’s state emergency service, said at 2am local time on Tuesday: “We continue to work at the site of the rocket attack on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk. The main tasks currently performed by rescuers are to carry out rescue operations, dismantle debris and eliminate fires. So far, 16 people have been killed and 59 injured, 25 of whom have been hospitalised.”

Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors told the Guardian earlier that 14 bodies had been found in the ruins, and one person died from their wounds in hospital. At least 40 missing persons reports had been submitted by locals searching for loved ones who had gone missing in the building.

When the missile struck, it ignited a massive fire that took 300 emergency workers more than four hours to extinguish.

Volunteers and State Emergency Service firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a shopping center burned after a rocket attack in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, early Tuesday.
Volunteers and State Emergency Service firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a shopping center burned after a rocket attack in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, early Tuesday. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Mykola Lukash, from the Kremenchuk district prosecutor’s office, said cranes would be brought in on Tuesday to help lift the collapsed roof of the shopping centre. “We haven’t found any children’s bodies. A lot of bodies are burnt. We need to carry out DNA tests. At the current moment 14 bodies were found here on the site and another one died in the hospital.”

Svitlana Rybalko, the head of communications of Poltava region State Emergency Service, said the exact number of casualties remained unclear and that “There might be survivors.”

As night fell in Kremenchuk, emergency workers and soldiers combed through blackened debris and twisted metal.

“We pulled out several bodies, but there are definitely more trapped under the rubble,” said Oleksii, 46, a firefighter. “This is normally a very crowded place.”

Rescue teams work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, Ukraine.
Rescue teams work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. Photograph: Reuters

Updated

Summary and welcome

Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you as we continue to report all the latest news from Ukraine.

Rescue teams are searching for survivors in the rubble of a shopping mall in central Ukraine after a Russian missile strike killed at least 16 people in an attack condemned by the United Nations and the west

Here are all the major developments as of 8am in Kyiv.

  • A Russian missile hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, killing and injuring scores of people, Ukrainian authorities said. Serhiy Kruk, the head of Ukraine’s state emergency service, said at 2am local time on Tuesday: “So far, 16 people have been killed and 59 injured, 25 of whom have been hospitalised.” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 1,000 people were inside the building at the time of the strike and officials are “still establishing the number of people under the rubble.”
  • 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 leaders of the G7 said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attacks aimed at civilians were a “war crime” and condemned the “abominable attack” in Kremenchuk. “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,” a statement read. They said they would “continue to provide financial, humanitarian as well as military support for Ukraine, for as long as it takes”.
  • Russian shelling of a residential area in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, killed at least five civilians on Monday, the regional governor said. A further 19 people were wounded in the attack, Oleh Synehubov said.
  • A Russian missile attack also killed at least eight civilians and wounded 21 in Ukraine’s eastern Lysychansk region. “Today, when the civilian people were collecting water from a water tank, the Russians aimed at the crowd,” Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk governor, said on Telegram.
  • German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there can be no return to prewar ties with Russia. Scholz said that with its attack on Ukraine, Russia has broken “all the rules, all the agreements we have made with each other on countries’ cooperation” after the G7 summit. He said G7 leaders agree that it has led to long-term changes “which will mark international relations for a very, very long time. So it is clear that, in relations with Russia, there can be no way back to the time before the Russian attack on Ukraine.”
  • The UN security council will meet on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s targeted attacks on civilians at the request of Ukraine.
  • Nato will boost the number of troops on high alert by more than sevenfold to over 300,000 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the military alliance’s forces in the Baltic states and five other frontline countries would be increased “up to brigade levels” – doubled or trebled to between 3,000 and 5,000 troops. That would amount to “the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the cold war,” he said.
  • UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has reportedly written to the prime minister to call for the defence budget to be lifted to 2.5% of GDP by 2028. The leaked request, first reported by Talk TV, emerged on the eve of the Nato summit in Madrid, which will discuss the renewed threat posed by Russia and the anticipated commitment of hundreds more British troops to the defence of Estonia.
  • Any encroachment on the Crimea peninsula by a Nato member-state could amount to a declaration of war on Russia which could lead to “World War Three,” Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, was quoted as saying on Monday. “For us, Crimea is a part of Russia. And that means forever. Any attempt to encroach on Crimea is a declaration of war against our country. And if this is done by a Nato member-state, this means conflict with the entire North Atlantic alliance; a World War Three. A complete catastrophe,” Medvedev told the Russian news website Argumenty i Fakty.
  • The US is planning to buy and send more medium- to long-range missile systems to Ukraine, including Nasams, an advanced surface-to-air missile system, according to defence officials. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, confirmed on Monday the US is in the process of finalising a package that includes advanced air defence capabilities.
  • Putin and his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, discussed global food security and confirmed their intention to strengthen their strategic partnership, the Kremlin said on Monday. Putin assured Bolsonaro in a phone call that Russia would fulfil all its obligations to supply fertilisers to Brazil, the Kremlin said in a statement as reported by Reuters.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service firefighters take away debris at a shopping centre burned after a rocket attack in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, early Tuesday.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service firefighters take away debris at a shopping centre burned after a rocket attack in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, early Tuesday. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
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