Russian missile strikes hit Kremenchuk, Lysychansk and Kharkiv – as it happened

2.00am BST

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.

In the meantime, you can read our comprehensive summary of the day’s events in our summary below.

• 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.”

• The attack on Kremenchuk has been met with international outrage. UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, described the strike as a “shocking and barbaric attack on innocent civilians” while French President, Emmanuel Macron, denounced the attack as an “abomination”.

• 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 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 of Donbas. “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 pre-war 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” following the Group of Seven 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.

• 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 of finalising a package that includes advanced air defence capabilities.

• 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.

• Russian President Vladimir 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.

• Iran has submitted an application to become a member in the group of emerging economies known as the BRICS, Iranian and Russians officials said on Monday. “While the White House was thinking about what else to turn off in the world, ban or spoil, Argentina and Iran applied to join the BRICS,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Argentina is yet to confirm the reports.
• 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.

Rescuers and service members work at a site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. Photograph: Reuters

1.19am BST

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.

According to a Reuters report, Medvedev told the news website Argumenty i Fakty:

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, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, also said that if Finland and Sweden joined Nato, Russia would strengthen its borders and would be “ready for retaliatory steps,” and that could include the prospect of installing Iskander hypersonic missiles “on their threshold.”