June 29, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Clearing the wreckage at the shopping mall in the center of the city hit by a Russian missile on Monday is undergoing, said Vitalii Maletskyi, the mayor of Kremenchuk.

Maletskyi told Ukrainian television Wednesday: "Rescuers from three regions of Ukraine are working at the scene. They have not yet reached the epicenter of the explosion. There is still a large area to work on where the ceiling collapsed, the supporting structures collapsed."

Dmytro Lunin, head of Poltava region military administration, said clearing the wreckage would continue for two to three days. 

Twenty-five people had been admitted to a hospital, he said. One person had died in hospital.

"Eighteen bodies and eight body fragments were found at the scene. Relatives are doing DNA tests now," Lunin told Ukrainian television, adding that three rescue officers had also been injured while dismantling the debris.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that NATO allies would continue to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia for “as long and as intensively as it is necessary."

On Tuesday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Berlin would provide a division of 15,000 troops, with 65 planes and 20 ships, to NATO's high-readiness force.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announced on Monday that the alliance would scale up the number of troops at high alert to more than 300,000 from 2023.

At least three people were killed after eight missiles hit the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early Wednesday, according to regional officials.

A five-story apartment building was hit, according to the State Emergency Service (SES) in Mykolaiv region.

"It is currently known about three dead and one civilian injured. Also, one SES employee was injured," it said.

Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration, said that five people had been injured in total.

Oleksandr Sienkevych, the mayor of Mykolaiv, said there had been a total of eight strikes and that the number of victims was not final. 

He said the Russians had used a modified KH-55 missile in the attacks and he was not sure whether the apartment building that was hit was the intended target.

 "We know that their weapons fire anywhere," said Sienkevych.

"In all the days after invasion, there were only 18 days when we were not fired upon," he added. "We used to be fired at several times a day with cluster shells... Now they have switched to missiles."

He said 114 local residents had died due to Russian attacks since the invasion began.

President Joe Biden arrived to a NATO summit in Madrid, where he plans to announce a significant strengthening of forces along the alliance's eastern flank as Russia's war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing.

NATO leaders enter the talks propelled by a diplomatic victory after Turkey dropped its objections to Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance, setting the stage for the two longtime neutral countries to enter the defensive bloc.

In Madrid, leaders plan to agree on major new security commitments the likes of which haven't been seen since the Cold War.

On Tuesday, Biden said he was sending two additional destroyers to the Rota Naval Station in Spain, intended to bolster the American maritime presence in the region.

He'll make additional announcements Wednesday on force increases on "land, sea and air," according to his top national security aide, who said US forces along NATO's eastern edge would move "in a steady state" to the region.

Russian forces are focusing their efforts on encircling the city of Lysychansk, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said early Thursday.

Russian forces already control the southern and eastern approaches to Lysychansk, and fighting continues close to the main highway southwest of the city, where a large oil refinery is situated.

The Russians are also trying to close in on the town of Bakhmut, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Lysychansk, and have made some gains south of the town, the General Staff said Thursday.

If successful, they would potentially trap Ukrainian forces still defending lines in a pocket of territory in Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

"The enemy is partially successful, it is entrenching in the northern part of Klynove ​​and near the E-40 highway," said the General Staff. "In order to maintain the pace of the offensive in this direction, the occupiers strengthened the group with one battalion tactical group."

Some Ukrainian officials have called the E-40 "the highway of life" because of its importance in resupplying troops and evacuating civilians, which would be greatly complicated if the Russians interdict the highway. 

Elsewhere in Donetsk – near Sloviansk – the General Staff said that the Russians were still focused on assault operations north of the city and had moved more weapons and military equipment into the area.

Local Ukrainian officials have previously said that the Russians are reinforcing north of Sloviansk, one of several major cities in Donetsk that remain in Ukrainian hands.

The General Staff said that the Russians continued to shell Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region from across the border and had also brought a multiple launch rocket system into action.

Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, head of the Sumy region military administration, said three people had been killed.

The Russians had also carried out airstrikes, he said, using helicopters that shot missiles from the other side of the border. The town of Krasnopillya was "covered" with fire, he said.

In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military says that the Russians have added one battalion tactical group to forces south of Kryvyi Rih.

Yevhen Sytnychenko, head of Kryvyi Rih district military administration, said that the city's thermal power plant had been shelled but continued to operate.

"The goal of the Russians is to intimidate the civilian population," he said, adding that one man had been injured in the shelling of a village south of the city.

In the city of Dnipro, the bodies of two people had been recovered from the rubble of a transport depot hit on Tuesday, according to local authorities.

NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said he expects Sweden and Finland to become members of the military alliance quickly. 

"We will make a decision today or at least at the summit to invite Sweden and Finland to become members, that's unprecedented quick," he said on arrival at the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, after both countries filed the application in mid-May.  

After the invitation, "we need a ratification process in 30 parliaments, that always takes some time but I expect also that to go rather quickly because allies are ready to try to make that ratification process happen as quickly as possible," he said. 

NATO leaders meeting Wednesday in Madrid will "state clearly that Russia poses a direct threat to our security," Stoltenberg also said.

On Monday, Stoltenberg announced that NATO would increase the number of high readiness forces to well over 300,000 in the eastern part of the alliance.  

Stoltenberg said Wednesday said he expects these forces to be ready by next year. 

With its strawberries and cream, grassy slopes, and peaceful setting in a leafy part of London, Wimbledon is a world away from Ukraine, where the bombs still fall four months after Russia invaded.

For the Ukrainians competing at SW19, however, the war never truly leaves them.

On Wednesday, Anhelina Kalinina will face Lesia Tsurenko in an all-Ukrainian second-round match they hope can draw attention to the continued plight of their country.

Since Russia began its war in Ukraine in February, millions of refugees have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, and for Kalinina, her family is among the uprooted.

She confirmed to reporters on Monday that her parents' home in the Kyiv suburb of Irpinhad been bombed, saying “they are alive, they are safe” but “living on the bags and praying every day.”

Read the full story here.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday that in just a decade, NATO’s relationship with Russia has changed from a partnership to considering it a key threat.  

Arriving at the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recalled that in 2010, at the NATO Summit in Lisbon, Russia participated in meetings there. 

“This will not be the case now,” he told reporters.  

Stoltenberg said he thinks the NATO leaders in Madrid will agree “that Russia poses a direct threat to our security and that will be reflected” in NATO’s new strategic concept. 

A senior Russian-backed official installed to run the southern region of Kherson in Ukraine said the authorities there are preparing for a referendum to join the Russian Federation.

Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region, said in an interview on his Telegram channel: "Yes, we are preparing for the referendum, and we will hold it."

Stremousov has been collaborating with Russian officials for several months.

Addressing those anticipating Kherson's liberation by Ukrainian forces, Stremousov said on June 14: "We do not pay attention to it. All your attempts are useless and meaningless. […] We say once again that this is a waste of time."

He also warned those refusing to cooperate.

On Tuesday, the elected mayor of Kherson city, Ihor Kolykhaiev, was arrested. He has remained in the city throughout the occupation. The deputy head of the interim administration of the Kherson region, Kateryna Gubareva, confirmed his arrest.

The Russian-backed administration is planning to offer Russian passports to residents of Kherson and begin introducing the ruble as its currency.

About 45% of the pre-invasion population has left the region, according to Ukrainian officials, but moving directly to Ukrainian-held parts of the country has become extremely difficult.