Here are the latest developments of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine on June 29, 2022
Dozens of people were still missing on Wednesday after a Russian rocket attack on a shopping center in central Ukraine two days ago that left at least 18 dead. At the same time, a regional governor said the situation was “extremely difficult” in Lysychansk in the east. Ukraine said Russia deliberately killed civilians when it smashed into the shopping center in Kremenchuk. Moscow said the mall was empty and had hit a nearby weapons depot. “Russian missile hit exactly this location. De-li-be-ra-te-ly… It is clear that Russian assassins have received those exact coordinates,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening video address. “They wanted to kill as many people as possible.” Authorities said about 36 people are still missing.
Zelensky accused Russia of being a “terrorist state” at the United Nations, leading Russia to accuse it of using a Security Council address as a “remote PR campaign” to recruit more Western weapons. He urged the Security Council to expel Moscow from the United Nations and set up a tribunal to investigate the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine. However, Russia has a veto right of the council and can protect itself against such actions. “Russia has no right to participate in the discussion and vote on the war in Ukraine, which is unprovoked and just colonialist on the part of Russia,” Zelensky told the council. “I urge you to strip the terrorist state delegation of its powers.”
Germany
G7 urges China to pressure Russia to stop the invasion of Ukraine.
G7 leaders urged China to uphold the principle of peaceful dispute settlement by encouraging Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine and let its “extensive maritime claims” in the South China Sea fall. In a communiqué to conclude their three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps, G7 leaders also said they were deeply concerned about the human rights situation in China and were consulting on collective approaches to challenges arising from non-market economic policies. – Reuters
Ukraine
Russian security forces detain mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kherson: Officials.
Russian-installed officials in Ukraine’s Kherson region said their security forces detained Kherson’s mayor, Ihor Kolykhayev, on Tuesday for refusing to follow Moscow’s orders. In contrast, a local Kherson official said the mayor had been kidnapped. Kherson, a port city on the Black Sea, is located just northwest of the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. It was occupied during the first week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February, and much of the local population has left the region.
“I can confirm that Kolykhayev was detained by the commander’s office (military police),” Ekaterina Gubareva, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region, said on the Telegram messaging app. Halyna Lyashevska, an adviser to Kolykhayev, said the mayor was kidnapped after he refused to cooperate with the Russian occupiers of Ukraine. – Reuters
Ukraine
Macron says Russia can’t win in Ukraine after mall strike
A still image from handout CCTV footage shows the explosion as a Russian missile strike hits a shopping center amid the Russian attack on Ukraine, at a location specified as Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, Ukraine, on June 28, 2022. | Photo credits: Instagram/@zelenskiy_official/Reuters. French president denounced Russia’s fiery airstrike on a busy shopping mall in Ukraine on Tuesday as a “new war crime” and vowed that the West’s support for Kyiv would not waver, saying Moscow “cannot and must not win the war.”.
The strike, which killed at least 18 people in the central city of Kremenchuk, came as leaders of the Group of Seven Nations met in Europe. It was part of an unusually intense barrage of Russian fire across Ukraine, including in the capital Kyiv, that renewed international attention as the war dragged on. At the end of the G7 summit in Germany, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to alleviate those concerns and vowed that the seven leading industrialized democracies would support Ukraine and maintain sanctions against Russia “for as long as necessary and with appropriate intensity”. “Russia cannot and should not win,” he said. He called Monday’s attack on the mall “a new war crime.” – AP.
Ukraine
Ukrainian president: Russia has become a ‘terrorist’ state
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of being a “terrorist” state that carries out “daily terrorist acts” and urged Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations. In a virtual speech to the UN Security Council, Mr. Zelensky urged the UN to set up an international tribunal to investigate “the actions of the Russian occupiers on Ukrainian soil” and hold the country accountable. “We must take urgent action to do everything we can to stop Russia from killing,” said Mr. Zelensky, warning that Russia’s “terrorist activity” would otherwise spread to other European countries and Asia, including the Baltic States, Poland, Moldova, and Kazakhstan. – AP
Ukraine
16 killed and 59 injured in a rocket attack on Ukraine shopping center
A Russian rocket attack on a busy shopping center in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk has killed at least 16 people, the chief of emergency services said Tuesday morning, sparking international outrage. “Today’s Russian attack on the Kremenchuk shopping center is one of the most brutal terrorist acts in European history,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening broadcast on Telegram.
