June 28, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

G7 leaders are announcing up to $5 billion funding in global food security Tuesday, in the latest effort to counter global effects from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

More than half of the funds will come from the United States. 

As part of Tuesday’s announcement, the Biden administration is committing $2.76 billion in funding “to support efforts in over 47 countries and regional organizations.”

It will include $2 billion in direct humanitarian aid and $760 million “for sustainable, near and medium-term food assistance to help enhance the resilience and productivity of food systems around the world, particularly in vulnerable regions,” a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday.

Russia's invasion pushing millions into poverty: According to White House estimates, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent destruction of agriculture equipment and blockade of grain shipments will push up to 40 million into poverty in 2022.

The US' commitment will come from the second Ukraine supplemental assistance package lawmakers passed last month, and is expected to be allocated and delivered by the end of the fiscal year.

Ukrainian officials are investigating the air raid response at the Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk, before a Russian missile struck killing at least 18 people.

Hundreds of people had been at the shopping center before the air raid was announced on Monday afternoon.

Maletskyi said Ukraine's prosecutor general had visited the scene of the attack.

The mayor noted that on June 23, the mall had posted on social media that it would not close during an alarm. "From today [June 23] the shopping center is not closed during the air raid [siren.] The shopping center is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. without breaks," the post read.

In a message to mark Ukraine's Constitution Day on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian sovereignty "extends to the entire territory."

Zelensky said Ukraine is a "unitary state" and "our territory within the existing borders is integral and inviolable."

France will send Ukraine “significant quantities” of French-made armored personnel carrier and support vehicles, known as VAB, according to the country's armed forces minister.

The VAB is a wheeled armored personnel carrier and support vehicle. It was developed in the early 1970s by French manufacturers Saviem and Renault and first used in 1976. 

The minister did not say when these vehicles would be delivered.

Lecornu added that France was also examining the possibility of delivering to Ukraine French-built anti-ship Exocet missiles.

The number of people killed in a missile strike on a shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk has risen to 18, a regional official said on Tuesday, as search and rescue operations continue.

Dmytro Lunin, head of Poltava region military administration, said rescuers continued to work at the site.

Hundreds of people had been at the mall minutes before the strike, which Ukrainian officials say was by a Russian KH-22 missile. The KH-22 can carry an explosive warhead weighing up to 1 ton (2,240 pounds). 

"The dismantling of damaged building structures is ongoing with the help of heavy engineering equipment and small machines," Lunin said.

He added that 25 people were admitted to intensive care at the hospital in Kremenchuk.

In another area where Russian forces are trying to take territory — north of the city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region — the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said Russian efforts are focused on the settlements of Dovhenke and Dolyna.

It added that "our defenders stopped the enemy's attempt to advance."

Elsewhere, Russian attacks took the form of artillery and mortar fire, with little movement on the ground.

Kharkiv: The General Staff said that north of Kharkiv, the Russians continued to use artillery to prevent Ukrainian forces from advancing to the Russia-Ukraine border. An attempt by Russian troops to cross the Siverskiy Donets river in the south of Kharkiv region had been repelled. 

Sumy: The General Staff also said there had been more cross-border shelling into the northeastern Sumy region, without providing details of casualties or damage.

The Ukrainian military said its forces have held back Russian assaults in several areas along the front lines in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, while fighting continues around the city of Lysychansk.

Serhii Hayday, head of Luhansk region military administration, said the Russians were attacking Lysychansk from the southern and southwestern directions. 

Some context: The Ukrainian military has said the area around Vovchoiarivka — adjacent to the main highway — is the focus of current battles. Were the Ukrainians to lose this area, Lysychansk would be virtually surrounded.

Russian advance held back: The Ukrainian General Staff said Tuesday that Russian efforts to reach the highway in an area where Luhansk and Donetsk regions meet had been thwarted.

"Ukrainian soldiers successfully suppressed all these attempts and forced the enemy to retreat," the General Staff said.

Lysychansk destruction: Hayday said there had been widespread destruction in Lysychansk due to Russian shelling on Monday and confirmed that eight people were killed in a rocket strike while queuing at a water tank.

Bakhmut: There was also heavy shelling by Russian forces trying to advance toward the town of Bakhmut, a key position for Ukrainian defenses some 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Lysychansk.

White House officials are losing confidence that Ukraine will ever be able to take back all of the land it has lost to Russia over the past four months of war, US officials told CNN, even with the heavier and more sophisticated weaponry the US and its allies plan to send.

Advisers to US President Joe Biden have begun debating internally how and whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should shift his definition of a Ukrainian “victory” — adjusting for the possibility that his country has shrunk irreversibly.

US officials emphasized to CNN that this more pessimistic assessment does not mean the US plans to pressure Ukraine into making any formal territorial concessions to Russia in order to end the war.

There is also hope that Ukrainian forces will be able to take back significant chunks of territory in a likely counteroffensive later this year.

And not everyone in the administration is as worried — some believe Ukrainian forces could again defy expectations, as they did in the early days of the war when they repelled a Russian advance on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Read the full story here.

US President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Spain on Tuesday for the start of a NATO summit that is expected to focus heavily on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine after wrapping up final meetings with G7 leaders in Germany.

After meeting on Tuesday morning with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom on the margins of the G7, Biden will head to Madrid.

Leaders attending the NATO summit are expected to endorse a new "Strategic Concept" that outlines the defense alliance's goals for the next decade.

The summit comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stretches into its fifth month and as the US looks to keep allies united in its support for Ukraine and sustain the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Read the full story here.