Latest news about Russia and the war in Ukraine

The Ukrainian government released footage showing the missile that hit the Amstor shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchug on Monday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 59 others.

The video clip, which shows CCTV footage from a machine factory near the mall on Monday, was shown in Ukrainian President Zelensky’s speech on Tuesday night, and was posted on Facebook.

CNBC has not been able to independently verify that the missile is a Kh-22 as mentioned in the tweet, and this has been stated by several Ukrainian officials.

The Kh-22 is a large, long-range anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union and first used in the early 1960s, intended for use against US Navy aircraft carriers in the Cold War.

Western leaders condemned the mall strike as a war crime. Russia, for its part, said it was targeting an arms depot donated by the United States and Europe that it said was located near the mall, a claim Ukraine denied.

– Holly Eliat

At least 4,731 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although the actual numbers are likely to be much higher given the difficult nature of collecting accurate data during periods of war.

“Civilians continue to bear the brunt of hostilities” in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said Wednesday morning in a presentation on the human rights situation in the country.

Bogner said more than 10,000 people were officially documented as being killed or injured, including several hundred children, between the start of the conflict on February 24 and May 15. The data is based largely on field visits and interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights violations.

“I stress that the actual numbers are much higher,” she added.

Bognor said that Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, from homes to education and places of worship, do not comply with international humanitarian law. On a much smaller scale, she added, it also appears that Ukraine’s armed forces have not complied with the law in the eastern parts of the country.

– Holly Eliat

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that the NATO summit in Madrid would be historic, with an agreement on the table to accept new members and to propose a new “strategic concept” that would serve as his blueprint. , “Take NATO into the future in a more competitive and dangerous world.”

With the alliance ready to shift its defenses, Stoltenberg said the summit would be “historic and transformative” for the alliance.

NATO has already reached an agreement to allow Sweden and Finland to join the alliance after Turkey dropped its opposition to the file. It has also already announced that it will significantly increase its quick reaction force to 300,000 troops, compared to the current level of about 40,000 troops.

Speaking to the press after reaching the summit on Wednesday, CNBC’s Hadley Gamble asked Stoltenberg about the schedule and structure for those additional forces.

“I expect it will be available and ready next year, that’s the plan. These forces will be paid for and organized by the various NATO countries,” he noted, and then they will be pre-allocated to specific NATO regions, mostly in the United States. The eastern part of the alliance, where they will train and become experienced in this field.

Stoltenberg said pre-existing heavy equipment and pre-assigned forces in some countries would allow NATO to strengthen deterrence and defences.

– Holly Eliat

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia is responsible for “state terrorism” in Ukraine, with more than 2,800 Russian missiles hitting its cities so far during the war.

In his last speech at night, Zelensky said that he participated in a special meeting of the UN Security Council, which was held at the request of Ukraine on Tuesday, in order to “take advantage of all international means to bring Russia to justice for state terrorism.”

“For all that the Russian army has done against the Ukrainians in Kremenchug, Ochakiv, Lychansk, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and many, many other cities of Ukraine. As of this evening, the total number of Russian missiles that have hit our cities is already 2811. There are a lot of air bombs, many of artillery shells.”

The President noted that the UN Security Council stood silent today in memory of all Ukrainians who were killed by the Russian army so far during the conflict, noting that “the members of the Russian delegation looked at all those present in the Security Council and also decided to stand … but everyone knows that it is terrorism.” Russian, it is the Russian state that is killing innocents in this war it is waging against the Ukrainian people.”

Russia has again been accused of war crimes after a Russian missile hit a shopping center in Kremenchug, central Ukraine. The strike killed at least 20 civilians shopping in the building and wounded at least 59, with others still missing. Yesterday, Ukraine’s Interior Minister said that there were no survivors under the rubble due to the fire that spread in the building after the missile strike.

Russia has repeatedly denied that it targeted civilians or civilian infrastructure despite repeated cases that have disproved these allegations. It has also spread lies and misinformation about such attacks; Russia said on Tuesday it was targeting an arms depot donated by the United States and Europe near the mall, a claim Ukraine denied.

– Holly Eliat

German Foreign Minister Annalina Barbock described the situation the country is facing as a “hybrid war”, with the conflict in Ukraine having profound implications for Europe’s energy landscape, and Germany having to make plans in the case of gas supplies – supplied via Nord Stream 1 from Russia to Germany – It is cut by Moscow.

“Now in Germany we are faced with the question that if there is no gas going through Nord Stream 1 … we have to decide which enterprise might be cut off from the grid,” Barbock told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Tuesday.

“We are in a time of war, in Ukraine people are dying, but we are in a mixed war where the war is also going on [fought] of energy,” Barbock said.

Germany is particularly dependent on Russian gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Before the war, there were plans to double this supply with a second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, despite concerns about the pipeline from the United States, Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe, especially Poland.

The gigantic energy infrastructure project, although fully built and operational, has been frozen, possibly permanently Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

– Holly Eliat

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the most powerful military alliance in the world They reached an agreement to accept Sweden and Finland After resolving Turkey’s rejectionist concerns.

The pressure to add Sweden and Finland to the world’s most powerful military alliance comes as Russia’s attack on Ukraine raises concerns for other countries in the region. Moscow, long worried about NATO expansion, opposed the two countries’ plans to join the alliance.

Finland and Sweden already meet many requirements to become a member of NATO. Some of the requirements include a functioning democratic political system, a willingness to provide economic transparency and the ability to make military contributions to NATO missions.

However, all 30 NATO members must agree to any country’s bid to be accepted into the alliance.

– Amanda Macias

A satellite image taken by Planet Labs shows the destruction of a shopping center in Kremenchug, Ukraine.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging platform that More than 1000 people They were inside at the time of the Russian missile attack, according to an NBC News report.

“This is not an off-target missile strike, it’s a calculated Russian strike – exactly in this mall,” Zelensky said on his site. evening address.

The G7 leaders condemned the Russian missile strike and pledged to hold “Russian President Putin and those responsible for him accountable.”

The Kremlin has previously denied it is targeting civilians.

– Amanda Macias

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said European Union gas stocks are increasing as the bloc looks to suppliers other than Russia, but added that the region must have contingency plans in case Russia cuts its supplies.

“There should be – especially if Russia decides to cut supplies completely – contingency plans but [gas] Stocks are increasing well. We have reached a good level of stocks … And if we complete the stocks, we will be able to manage this transition to the time when we will be completely independent of Russian gas.”

Draghi said Europe had implemented measures to address the economic fallout from the conflict, including diversifying its suppliers and investing in renewable forms of energy.

We went everywhere [for other suppliers]”We have replaced a great deal of Russian gas,” he said, noting that 40% of the EU’s gas supplies came from Russia last year, while it has now fallen to 25%.

Draghi also noted that a recession in Europe due to the war in Ukraine is not an immediate prediction, saying, “Right now, the eurozone economy is slowing down but we don’t expect a recession now. The economy is actually doing better than we expected two months ago.”

– Holly Eliat