Image source, Reuters

Ukraine's president has called on the United Nations to visit the site of a missile strike on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk, during an address at the UN Security Council.

Volodymyr Zelensky said: "I suggest the United Nations send either a special representative, or the secretary general of the United Nations, or a plenipotentiary commission to the site of this terrorist act".

He added it will enable the UN to "independently find out information and see that this indeed was a Russian missile strike."

At least 18 people were killed in yesterday's attack - dozens were injured and many are still missing, authorities have said.

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine will receive an additional three Howitzers from both Germany and the Netherlands, their defence ministers have said.

They have already provided 12 of the long-range weapons between them.

The announcement was made as Nato members met at a summit in Madrid, Spain.

"We show our resolve and our commitment to Ukraine, and not to give in to this Russian aggression," Netherland's Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren said.

Frank Gardner
BBC security correspondent reporting from Madrid

Image source, Nato

Sooner than many had expected, the Nato summit has achieved an early success.

The way has just been cleared for Finland and Sweden to join the 30-member Western military alliance after Turkey dropped its objections.

The breakthrough came after the foreign ministers of Sweden, Finland and Turkey, facilitated by Nato's secretary general, signed a joint security pact that addressed Ankara’s concerns.

Turkey had previously objected to the two Nordic nations joining Nato on the grounds that they sheltered Kurdish activists who Ankara viewed as terrorists.

The addition of these two modern Scandinavian democracies to the Atlantic alliance will further isolate - and anger - the Kremlin, which sees Nato not as a defensive organisation but an aggressive one.

Image source, Reuters

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed an announcement that Turkey has given the green light to bids from Finland and Sweden to join his military alliance of Western nations.

Speaking after the agreement was signed, Nato's secretary general says the three countries have signed a memo that "addresses Turkey's concerns, including around arms exports and the fight against terrorism," according to remarks quoted by Reuters.

The readiness of Turkey to back Sweden and Finland's Nato membership is a significant move from the opposition initially expressed by President Erdogan.

Back in May Ankara accused them of protecting Kurdish terrorists.

"Neither of these countries have a clear, open attitude towards terrorist organisation. How can we trust them?" Mr Erdogan said at the time.

The statement by Finland's president says that "as a Nato member, Finland will commit fully to the counterterrorism documents and policies of Nato."

The AFP news agency reported that the Turkish presidency "got what it wanted" from the Madrid talks.

Turkey has agreed to support the Nato membership applications of Finland and Sweden, the Finnish president has said.

Finland's President Niinisto said the breakthrough came after the three countries signed a joint memorandum "to extend their full support against threats to each other’s security" after meeting at the Nato summit in Madrid.

David Brown
Visual Journalism Team

Image source, .

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is calling for an increase in spending on Britain’s armed forces, in response to the threat from Russia.

In a speech today, he said it was “time to signal that defence investment needs to grow”.

Figures published by Nato this week suggest UK defence spending as a proportion of economic output (GDP) has actually fallen for a second year.

The UK is projected to spend 2.12% of GDP on defence this year.

That estimate is above the Nato target of 2%, but down from 2.26% in 2021 and 2.3 in 2020.

In absolute terms, the UK is still the second largest spender on defence, after the US, which spends by far the most.

Nato says that nine alliance members: Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, the UK and the US have reached or exceeded the 2% of GDP target.

Image source, .

An oil tanker travelling from Russia to New Orleans has been stopped to check that its cargo was not Russian in origin.

With Russian oil products sanctioned by the US, Custom and Border Protection officials checked the tanker, which was chartered by the Vitol energy company.

A spokesperson from Vitol told the Reuters news agency that "I can confirm on the record that this cargo is not Russian origin" and said the company is complying with the embargo on Russian products.

The cargo was due to reach a Valero refinery in the New Orleans region.

CCTV footage from a pond in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk has captured civilians running for cover and falling to the ground as Russian missiles land nearby, leaving at least 18 people dead.

The BBC has analysed the footage - and it appears one missile hit close to the eastern end of a shopping centre, while the other hit the northern end of a nearby factory.

Russia claims a strike on an arms storage facility detonated ammunition which set the nearby mall on fire.

Ukrainian officials have denied there was a weapons depot nearby.

Katya Adler
Europe Editor

Image source, Reuters

Finland’s President, Sauli Niinisto, has had more phone conversations with Vladimir Putin than most in the West over the years.

Finland shares a 1,300km-long border with Russia. Traditionally, his country has tried to "manage" its prickly neighbour carefully.

But President Niinisto told me Russia’s invasion of its other neighbour, Ukraine, was a game-changer. Finnish public support for joining Nato is suddenly a whopping 80%.

President Niinisto is in Madrid at the Nato summit to try to persuade Turkey to remove its objections to Finnish and Swedish membership.

Both countries insist that, with their sophisticated militaries and their geographical position, they bring as much to the defence alliance - by bolstering its eastern flank - as they stand to gain.

President Niinisto told me Europe’s relations with Russia would now likely remain distant and difficult for years, possibly decades, to come.

He said Ukraine should continue receiving military support from the West, including heavy weapons. He predicted Kyiv would get the missile defence system it’s asked for.

But, he insisted a balance had to be made not to provoke Russia into escalating further. He said he supported EU leaders like Germany’s Chancellor Scholz and France’s President Macron keeping lines of communication open with Moscow.

It was important, he told me, despite the criticism they received from some of their allies.

Image source, EPA

At the ruins of the shopping centre in Kremenchuk that was hit by a Russian missile on Monday, rescuers have stopped searching for survivors.

Ukraine’s interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi says "no living people" remain under the rubble, Reuters reports.

At least 18 people were killed on Monday by the missile strike.

The attack has drawn widespread international condemnation - including from leaders at the G7 summit in Germany.

Image source, '

What do we know about the expanded rapid response force?published at 18:11 British Summer Time 28 June 2022

18:11 BST 28 June 2022

Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent

Jens Stoltenberg is seeking a massive increase in the size of Nato's rapid reaction force.

The current Nato response force is around 40,000 strong with, in theory, military personnel ready to deploy within 15 days. Nato says the new response force will provide a much larger pool of high-readiness forces across land, sea and air.

Again, in theory, some of the 300,000 will be able to deploy within days, others over a longer period. An official said there would be “different tiers of readiness”.

Nato first deployed battlegroups of around 1,000 troops to each of the Baltic states in response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. With the invasion of Ukraine, Nato has already sent hundreds more and is ready to expand those forces.

But is that enough to satisfy those states who wanted to see a sizeable increase in Nato forces in their own countries? Keeping troops at high readiness in their own countries is clearly a compromise – and the less costly option.

Frank Gardner
BBC News, Security Correspondent

Nato leaders are meeting today at the alliance's summit in Madrid, where they could back a massive increase in the number of alliance troops on high alert - to more than 300,000.

Reading between the lines of today’s speech by the head of the British Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders (who says Britain is facing its "1937 moment"), what he’s calling for is a complete, radical overhaul of Nato’s strategy to defend the Baltics.

This current strategy involves stationing relatively small, multinational contingents of troops and equipment in the four Nato countries on Russia’s border that fear a future invasion.

Dubbed ‘the Enhanced Forward Presence’ these contingents are based in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and were recently bolstered in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.

But there is an acceptance in Nato circles that in the event of war and a full-scale Russian invasion these troops would be incapable of holding back an advance. Extra Nato forces would have to be rushed to the battlefront, possibly taking days, and would then try to retake territory already seized by Russia.

Not surprisingly, the Baltic states are less than impressed by this idea and have been calling on Nato to radically increase its presence there now, and not when it’s already too late. General Sanders appears to agree.

"We must stop Russia seizing territory rather than expecting to respond to a land grab with a delayed counter offensive," he says.

Words that will be warmly welcomed in Tallinn. The question is: does Nato actually have the manpower and the money to base yet more forces so far from home.

Image source, EPA

If you're just joining us or want a recap of what's been happening today, here's a quick round-up of the main developments:

• Nato's chief has acknowledged sanctions against Russia have led to higher energy prices for the Western world, but has said they are a price worth paying for "freedom". Jens Stoltenberg was speaking as a three-day summit of the military alliance got under way in Madrid. World leaders at the summit are expected to approve plans to increase the number of troops on high alert to more than 300,000. You can read more about what Nato is and how it's changing here

• Leaders of the G7 have agreed to work on a price cap for Russian oil and push for a ban on gold imports, in an attempt to reduce key sources of revenue used by Moscow to fund its military offensive in Ukraine. The leaders also called on countries not to stockpile food as the cost of living and world hunger crisis intensifies
• Rescuers have been searching for survivors in the rubble of a busy shopping centre in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, that was hit by a Russian missile strike on Monday

The Lviv regional prosecutors' office has notified a local resident that he is suspected of treason for assisting Russian forces in Ukraine, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.

According to the investigation, the man, a veteran of the Soviet State Security Committee (KGB), "assisted the aggressor state and its military formations in carrying out subversive actions against Ukraine".

"Using an on-line messenger, the man sent to the Russians information about the locations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Lviv Region for the delivery of missile strikes," the prosecutor's office says.

The man has been remanded in custody without the option of bail.

The Lviv regional directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is continuing the pre-trial investigation.

Image source, EPA

Pro-Russian forces have detained Igor Kolykhayev, the elected mayor of the city of Kherson, Russian media reports.

"Ex-mayor Kolykhayev has been detained," Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-backed Kherson administration, told state news agency RIA Novosti.

Councillor Galyna Lyashevska claimed on Facebook that the mayor was "kidnapped".

The Russians ousted local Ukrainians officials when they first occupied Kherson in early March.

It was the first major city to fall - one week after the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February.

At the time, Russian military authorities dismissed Kolykhayev from his post, saying he had "not been cooperating" with occupying forces and replacing him with a pro-Russian administration for the city and surrounding region.

Amid rumours of the city's annexation, Ukrainian television channels were blocked, internet service providers replaced with Russian ones and Ukraine's currency, the hryvnia, phased out in favour of the Russian rouble.

But many of the city's residents have remained defiant - and others, some 40% of citizens, have fled.

Image source, Reuters

A Ukrainian politician has described Russia's explanation for a missile attack on a shopping centre filled with civilians as "clearly nonsense". It comes after Moscow claimed it had targeted a nearby weapons depot, which it said must have impacted the Amstore complex.

"It's as far as you can imagine from any military site," Inna Sovsun tells BBC World News. "This was clearly a civilian [site] that [Russia] targeted knowing perfectly well that they would kill civilians."

Asked about the mood in Ukraine today, following the attack in Kremenchuk, Sovsun says it is "devastating".

She adds:

Reality Check and BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

Turning back now to events in Ukraine and within hours of the attack on a shopping centre in Kremenchuk on Monday, false and unproven claims began circulating online.

Stories were spread by Russian Telegram channels and by Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations. They included rumours that the attack was "false" or "staged", which were later repeated on Russian television.

On Tuesday, Russia's defence ministry released a statement claiming the shopping centre was "non-functioning" and that the bombing of a nearby ammunitions dump sparked a secondary fire at the centre. Those claims were flatly denied by Ukrainian officials.

What's the truth? We've been looking at the evidence on social media and talking to BBC reporters on the ground in Ukraine.

Here's what they found.

Image source, Reuters

Meanwhile, for its part, the United States has imposed sanctions on over 100 targets and banned the import of new Russian gold, the US Treasury Department says.

The moves blacklist 70 entities and 29 individuals, which freezes any US-held assets and prohibits them from doing business with or conducting financial transactions with US institutions.

The US will target Russia's state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec and multiple banks, including the Bank of Moscow, the Treasury Department says on its website.

The Treasury says Rostec's "management umbrella includes more than 800 entities across a wide range of sectors" and that all entities owned 50% or more, directly or indirectly, by Rostec are blocked.

Also sanctioned was United Aircraft Corporation, the maker of Russia's MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets - planes that are also flown by US allies including some Nato members - and which is majority owned by Rostec.

The US Treasury says this aims to "weaken Russia's ability to continue its aerial assault on Ukraine."

What are the sanctions on Russia and are they hurting its economy?

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, a summit of the Nato military alliance is getting under way in Madrid.

One of the key discussions set to take place on the sidelines of the summit is the one between US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The pair are scheduled to talk this week about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Analysts believe the meeting could play a crucial role in lifting Turkey's resistance to bids by Sweden and Finland to join Nato in response to the war.