Ukraine: Russian missile hits shopping center, at least 10 dead

At least ten people were killed and more than 40 others injured in a Russian missile strike Monday (June 27th) on a “busy” shopping center in central Ukraine, the regional governor announced, warning that the death toll could get heavier. “Ten dead and more than 40 people were injured. This is the current situation in Kremenchuk because of the missile strike,” said Dmytro Lounin, head of the Poltava region administration.

“Occupiers fired a missile at a mall where more than a thousand civilians were present. The mall is on fire and rescuers are battling the blaze. The number of casualties is impossible to imagine,” wrote earlier. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Facebook. He accompanied his message with a video showing the shopping center on fire, emitting large clouds of smoke, with fire trucks and a dozen people on site.

“The missile fire on Kremenchuk hit a very crowded place that has no connection with the hostilities,” said Vitali Maletsky, the mayor of this city, which had 220,000 inhabitants before the war, on Facebook. “There are dead and injured. More details will come,” he added.

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Regional Governor Dmytro Lounin denounced a “war crime” and a “crime against humanity”, as well as an “undisguised and cynical act of terror against the civilian population”.

Strike shows Putin’s ‘cruelty and barbarism’, says Johnson

Boris Johnson on Monday condemned the Russian strike on a shopping center in Ukraine, which he said shows Vladimir Putin’s “cruelty and barbarism”. “This appalling attack has shown once again the depths of cruelty and barbarism into which the Russian leader is ready to sink,” the British prime minister said in a statement. “Putin must understand that his behavior will only strengthen the resolve of the UK and all other G7 countries to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” he added.

The strike came on the second day of a G7 major powers summit in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany, largely dominated by the war sparked by Russia.

The G7 reaffirms its support for Ukraine “as long as it takes”

Before the strike, the leaders of the G7 had reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine on Monday, promising in particular their military and financial support “as long as it takes”.

The leaders of the seven great powers (Germany, United States, France, Canada, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom) undertook, in a joint declaration, “to continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support” to Ukraine, invaded on February 24 by Russia and the scene of deadly fighting, “as long as it takes”.

Zelensky rules out any current negotiations with the Russians

Guest of the G7 summit, Volodymyr Zelensky urged its leaders to redouble their efforts to put a rapid end to the war which is ravaging his country and to further toughen their sanctions against Moscow.

Volodymyr Zelensky “had a very strong message saying that we had to do the maximum to try to end this war before the end of the year”, underlined sources within the G7 at the end of the intervention by videoconference from kyiv of the Ukrainian leader.

The Ukrainian president notably asked the G7 to strengthen sanctions against Russia “by limiting the price of oil” exported by Moscow.

However, he ruled out any current negotiations with the Russians, warning, according to the French presidency, that “today is not the time for negotiation”. To support their support, the West, led by the United States, wants to tighten the noose on Moscow by targeting the Russian defense industry in particular, according to a senior White House official.

They also intend to develop a “mechanism to cap the price of Russian oil at the global level”, according to this senior official. The G7 will also “coordinate to use customs duties on Russian products to help Ukraine,” the same source continued.

Kyiv hit by missiles at G7 summit

While Russian troops are almost exclusively concentrated in the Donbass region, explosions were reported in the kyiv region on Sunday, the opening day of the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps. Four missiles hit a central district of the capital, killing at least one person and injuring six, according to the mayor of kyiv, who evokes an “attempt to intimidate Russia” while two international meetings are linked in a few days great importance: the G7 and the NATO summit. “A 7-year-old Ukrainian child was sleeping peacefully in kyiv until a Russian cruise missile blew up her building,” said the Ukrainian foreign minister.

For his part, Joe Biden considered that these bombings were “barbaric”. Russia, on the other hand, denies its accusations and claims to have only struck a missile production plant.

The Russian army advances in the Donbass and threatens elsewhere

Russian forces completely seized the strategic city of Severodonetsk, 90% destroyed, and entered the neighboring city of Lysytchansk, an important step towards the conquest of the entire Donbass mining basin. “However, this is only one of the challenges that Russia will have to meet to occupy the whole of the region”, estimates the British Ministry of Defence, which underlines the Russian will “to advance on the major center of Kramatorsk and to secure the supply routes” of the city of Donetsk. The Russian Defense Ministry also said it struck three military training centers in the north and west of the country.

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In addition, the American Institute for the Study of War observes “abnormal series of Russian strikes on rear areas”. He cites the command of the Ukrainian Air Force according to which some 50 strikes were recorded this Saturday near kyiv, Khmelnytskyi and Lviv in the East, in Cherniguiv in the North, in Mykolaiv in the South, in Kharkiv in the North- East and in the Dnepropetrovsk region, in the center of the country. Russia thereby recalls its ability to reach any point on Ukrainian territory, even if most of the operations take place in the East and South. This Saturday, Vladimir Putin announced his intention to deliver “in the coming months” to Belarus, a country bordering Ukraine, an ally of Russia, missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.