Ukraine news – live: At least 13 dead as Russian missile strikes Kremenchuk mall

Volodymyr Zelensky said it’s ‘impossible to even imagine’ how many killed

G7 leaders focus on helping Ukraine and punishing Russia

At least 13 people have died and more than 50 people were injured after a missile hit a crowded shopping centre in Ukraine.

Poltava region’s governor Dmytro Lunin gave updates to the death toll for the mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk.

But scores of people are feared to have been killed in the missile attack that Ukraine blamed Russia for.

President Volodymyr Zelensky that more than 1,000 people were in the shopping centre at the time of the attack.

He said: “It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims.”

Footage posted on social media showed a large fire and smoke billowing into the sky as people were fleeing from the burning building.

Following the attack, Boris Johnson condemned Vladimir Putin’s “cruelty and barbarism”.

The PM added: “Once again our thoughts are with the families of innocent victims in Ukraine.

“Putin must realise that his behaviour will do nothing but strengthen the resolve of the Ukraine and every other G7 country to stand by the Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Key Points

• Russian missile strike hits crowded shopping centre in Kremenchuk
• Zelensky tells G7 he wants Ukraine war over by end of 2022, as leaders back him ‘for as long as it takes’
• Boris Johnson urges allies to back Ukraine and compares Russia to Nazi Germany
• Zelensky asks G7 for more sanctions on Russia and anti-aircraft defence systems
• Nato increases forces on high alert from 40,000 to 300,000 amid Russia threat
• Russia ‘defaults on foreign debt’ for the first time in a century

[27 June 2022 03:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Ukraine peace deal would give Putin ‘license to manipulate’, Boris Johnson tells Macron

Boris Johnson has warned Emmanuel Macron that any attempt to settle the conflict in Ukraine now will give Russian president Vladimir Putin “license to manipulate” other countries.

The prime minister told the French president that compromise will “only cause enduring instability” as the pair met to discuss the war at the G7 summit in Germany.

Mr Macron was criticised for negotiating with Mr Putin at the start of the invasion and said Russia must not be “humiliated” – raising fears Ukraine could be pushed into giving up territory.

Adam Forrest reports:

[27 June 2022 02:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Watch: Russian missiles target Kyiv as troops consolidate gains in the east

✕

Russian missiles target Kyiv as troops consolidate gains in the east

[27 June 2022 02:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Watch: Zelensky calls for more help from G7 during ‘difficult stage of war’

✕

Ukraine: Zelensky calls for more help from G7 during 'difficult stage of war'

[27 June 2022 01:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Turkey to attend Nato talks with Finland and Sweden

President Tayyip Erdogan will attend a round of talks with the leaders of Sweden and Finland, as well as Nato on Tuesday ahead of the summit in Madrid, an Ankara spokesman has said.

Speaking to broadcaster Haberturk, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Erdogan and deputy foreign minister Sedat Onal would also attend another round of talks with Swedish and Finnish delegations in Brussels on Monday.

“There will be a four-way summit at the leader level with the attendance of our president in Madrid upon the request of the Nato secretary general,” he said.

Kalin said Erdogan attending the talks with Sweden, Finland and Nato on Tuesday “does not mean we will take a step back from our position.”

[27 June 2022 00:00 · Emily Atkinson]

UK will give £10m to rebuild Ukrainian railways to help export trapped grain out by train

Boris Johnson’s government will pledge £10million to help rebuild Ukraine’s railways in a bid to use trains to export grain trapped by Vladimir Putin’s blockade in the Black Sea.

The prime minister is set to call on fellow leaders to take urgent action to get essential food supplies out of Ukraine at the G7 Summit in Germany on Monday.

Mr Johnson said the United Nations’ plan to get the grain out of Ukraine is a “non-starter” because Russia will continue to use food supply as a bargaining chip to ease sanctions.

Adam Forrest has the story:

[26 June 2022 23:15 · Emily Atkinson]

Putin cannot ‘get away’ with conquering parts of Ukraine, says Johnson

Boris Johnson said he thinks the US is “still the last, best hope of peace and freedom”.

Speaking to CNN at the G7 summit in Germany, he said Russian president Vladimir Putin must not be allowed to “get away” with conquering parts of Ukraine.

Asked how so-called Ukraine fatigue can be combated in the West, and whether he worries higher energy prices might cause people in the US and UK to decide it is not worth the fight, he said: “I would just say to people in the United States that this is something that America historically does and has to do, and that is to step up for peace and freedom and democracy.

“If we let Putin get away with it, and just annex, conquer, sizeable parts of a free, independent, sovereign country, which is what he is poised to do, if not the whole thing, then the consequences for the world are absolutely catastrophic.”

He said the US came in twice in the last century “as the arsenal of democracy” and President Joe Biden’s current investment in helping Ukraine is “a price worth paying”.

“All I’m saying to people is sometimes America is asked by the world to step up. And getting back to your first question, I think America is still the last, best hope of peace and freedom,” he said.

PA

[26 June 2022 22:15 · Emily Atkinson]

✕

Boris Johnson and Justin Trudeau mock Putin's 'bare-chested horse rides'

[26 June 2022 21:15 · Emily Atkinson]

Russian airstrikes hit Kyiv killing one in ‘symbolic’ attack as G7 summit begins

Russian missiles have struck a residential building in Kyiv in the first such attack on the Ukraine capital in the three weeks,

One person was killed and five more injured as result of the early morning attack on Sunday, dubbed ‘symbolic’ by the city mayor as it coincided with the opening of the G7 summit.

Emergency services were seen battling flames in a badly damaged nine-storey residential building, as well as rescuing civilians from the rubble.

Aisha Rimi reports:

[26 June 2022 20:45 · Emily Atkinson]

Putin to make first foreign trip since launching Ukraine war

Russia’s president will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, according to reports, in what would be the Vladimir Putin’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin has said the ratcheting up of western sanctions against Russia are a reason to build stronger trade ties with other powers such as China, India and Iran.

Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian president Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow.

In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik president Imomali Rakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he will attend a summit of Caspian nations including the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan, Zarubin said.

[26 June 2022 20:15 · Emily Atkinson]

Watch: Boris Johnson says politicians suffering from 'fatigue' over Ukraine

✕

Boris Johnson says politicians suffering from 'fatigue' over Ukraine