June 30, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

The southern end of Snake Island is seen on June 30.

Snake Island is “free again,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly brief Thursday.?

The small but strategic territory was the scene of one of the opening salvos of the war in Ukraine, with?demands from a Russian warship?calling for the Ukrainian defenders to surrender, who boldly replied with “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”

Known as Zmiinyi Ostriv in Ukrainian, Snake Island lies around 30 miles (48 kilometers) off the coast of Ukraine and is close to the sea lanes leading to the Bosphorus and Mediterranean.

Some background: Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian troops left the island on Thursday, after they carried out what they said was a “successful” operation. Meanwhile, Russian army spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing that its forces left the island “as a gesture of goodwill.”

The US Defense Department is now reviewing 1,300 proposals from 800 companies for innovative new weapons and commercial capabilities they may be able to develop and produce for Ukraine to use in its fight against Russia’s invasion, according to a defense official.

The Pentagon expects to decide in the coming weeks on which ideas it will pursue, leading to possible eventual production for Ukraine as well as for the US military.

The proposals, requested by the department, center around key areas — including weapons capabilities for air defense, anti-armor, anti-personnel, coastal defense, anti-tank, unmanned aerial systems, counter battery and secure communications — which have been identified by Ukraine as key military needs.?

They were sought as part of a broad initiative by the Defense Department to “fulfill Ukraine’s priority security assistance requests,” according to the original solicitation for ideas sent to industry. The goal is to get ideas and information in hand in order to accelerate production and build more capacity across the industrial base, as its now accepted the US and its allies are likely to have to support Ukraine long after its own existing weapons stockpiles run out.????

This comes as the Pentagon continues its multiple billion-dollar weapons transfers. On Thursday, President Joe Biden said the US will soon announce another $800 million in new aid, including air defense systems and offensive weapons. So far, the US has committed $6.1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion by Russia. The US has been working with more than 50 other nations to see what weapons they can offer.?

The preference has been for what they have in Russian weapons, because Ukraine’s forces are familiar with those systems and would not need training. But as the war has gone on, more advanced weapons have been provided and Ukraine’s forces have been trained in nearby countries.?

The department’s plan for potential new production contracts reflects some urgency as it looks for potential deliveries anywhere from less than 30 days to more than 180 days. It is also asking companies to detail what type of air, land or sea platform their weapon might be deployed on and if they already have something in production.

The effort comes as a followup to a Pentagon meeting earlier this year with eight of the largest defense contractors, as well as approval by Congress for funding purchase contracts for weapons in addition to the ongoing drawdown and transfer of systems from the US military stockpile.??

The Pentagon has put into place a detailed bureaucratic structure to assess Ukraine’s needs and try to accelerate supplying them, it said. A new “senior integration group” of senior officials reviews?Ukraine’s latest operational needs.

The funding could potentially come from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is a pot of nearly $1 billion for contracting for weapons for Ukraine. Nearly $240 million has been contracted for in areas ranging from Switchblade drones to secure communications devices.?

Smoke billows over the oil refinery outside Lysychansk on June 21.

The Russian barrage continued on the eastern city of Lysychansk and Russian troops have “completely taken over the refinery,” Vitaliy Kiselev, the?assistant minister of the interior of the Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), announced on Russian-backed media outlet?Zvezda.?

Meanwhile, Ukraine says Russia is still conducting assault operations in the area of ??the Lysychansk oil refinery and “had a partial success, and holds the northwestern and southeastern parts of the plant,” according to a Thursday evening update from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said on Thursday night that Lysychansk is an “extremely difficult situation.”

“The shelling comes from several directions. Because the Russian army approached Lysychansk from different directions. As always, they reported that they controlled half the city. It is not true. But the shelling is very powerful. They even are deliberately shooting at our humanitarian centers. There are wounded. Now we advise people to be constantly in shelters. Evacuation is not possible. This is extremely dangerous. They mine the access roads with anti-tank mines. Russians on the outskirts. There are no street fights inside the city,” Hayday said.?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an addresses media representatives during a press conference at the NATO summit in Madrid on June 30.

Sweden promised to extradite 73 people to Turkey as a result of the memorandum that was signed in Madrid on Tuesday between Sweden, Finland and Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said.

Still, Erdo?an called the memorandum a “diplomatic victory.”

Prior to the NATO summit where the trilateral memorandum was signed, Turkey said it will veto Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership bids, claiming they harbor members of Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK which Turkey, EU and USA recognize as terror organization, as well as FETO which Turkey sees behind 2015 coup attempt.

The 10-article memorandum says Sweden and Finland will address Turkey’s pending extradition requests of terror suspects in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition.

Turkey dropped its objection to Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership as a result of the memorandum signed by those three countries and after Erdogan spoke to US President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

For the first several weeks after Snake Island in the Black Sea fell to the Russians on the first day of their invasion into Ukraine on Feb. 24, it was relatively quiet. That all changed on May 2, when the Ukrainians began utilizing?Bayraktar TB2 drones to target Russian forces and equipment on and near the island.?

Since then, almost every week, the Ukrainians conducted drone strikes on the island. The strikes have been overwhelmingly successful, knocking out military vehicles, buildings, ships and even a helicopter.?

Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian troops left the island on Thursday, after they carried out what they said was a “successful” operation. Meanwhile, Russian army spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing that its forces left the island “as a gesture of goodwill.”

The small but strategic territory was the scene of one of the opening salvos of the war in Ukraine, with?demands from a Russian warship?calling for the Ukrainian defenders to surrender, who boldly replied with “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”

See some of the satellite images from the strategic island here:

An overview of Snake Island is seen on June 30.

The northern end of Snake Island is seen on June 21.

US President Joe Biden speaks at the NATO Summit on June 30 in Madrid.

The NATO summit this week in Madrid, Spain, made headlines as it renewed its focus to address Russia’s war in Ukraine and China as a threat. US President Joe Biden said these developments show that the US-led military alliance is “moving to a place that?reflects the realities of the?second quarter of the 21st?century.”

Here’s a look at key remarks from Biden’s speech at the conclusion of the summit.

A message of transatlantic unity against Putin’s goals: The global response to every crisis created due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows Russian President Vladimir Putin is “getting exactly what he?did not want,” Biden said, citing Moscow’s anger at Sweden and Finland’s decision to join NATO.

“We’re more united than ever. And with the addition to Finland and?Sweden, we’ll be stronger than ever. They have serious militaries,?both of them.?We’re going to increase the NATO?border by 800 miles along the?Finnish-Russian border.?Sweden is all in.”

Russia is feeling the impact: While pledging to “support?Ukraine as long as it takes,” Biden said that the war in Ukraine has already taken a toll on Russia as it defaulted on foreign debt for the first time in a century. “They’re paying a very, very?heavy price for this,” Biden said.?

Inflation is a problem globally and Russia is to blame: Biden also addressed the increase in gas prices and food shortages around the globe and especially back at home in the US, squarely placing the blame on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The bottom line is ultimately the reason why gas prices are up is because of Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia. The reason why the food crisis exists is because of Russia.”

While the Russian forces have withdrawn from Snake Island in the Black Sea, it may be “too early” for Ukraine to establish an outpost there, said the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Military’s Southern Command, Natalia Humenyuk.

Humenyuk reported the island remains engulfed in heavy smoke as explosions continue. Although the Ukrainian military saw Russian troops evacuate using speedboats, Humenyuk said investigation needs to take place into possible “diversion tools left behind” before claiming back the island.

Humenyuk suggested the Russian military set anti-air missile systems and radar station on fire “to cover their tracks.”

“As soon as they understood all these systems were being targeted by us effectively and could not serve them anymore, they realized they had to fold their outpost and get out,” she added.?“We have to monitor their behavior in terms of their ship groupings and the use of other forces. It is too early for us to form an outpost on the Snake island. We have to finish the investigation into the result of the military operation.”?

Russian military command justified their withdrawal from the island on Thursday “as a gesture of goodwill.”

An islet off the Ukrainian coast near Odesa, Snake Island had been captured by the Russian Navy in the early day of the war in February. An important?outpost for marking Ukrainian territorial waters, it has become the symbol of Ukrainian resistance against Russian occupation.?

Read more about Russian withdrawal from Snake Island here.

Ukraine announced Thursday that it has severed diplomatic relations with Syria after Damascus on Wednesday recognized the independence of the pro-Russia separatist-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the decision of the Syrian Arab Republic to recognize the so-called ‘independence’ of the temporarily occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Syria is the only country aside from Russia to?formally?recognize the independence of the breakaway regions.

“In response to this unfriendly act, Ukraine declares the severance of diplomatic relations with Syria without the severance of consular relations, in accordance with Article 2 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations done in Vienna on 24 April 1963,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry also said, adding that it will impose a trade embargo, as well as other sanctions, on Syria.

Read?more about the two pro-Moscow regions here.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN that Russian President Vladimir Putin has underestimated both Ukraine’s resistance and the unity of the NATO military alliance.?

“He [Putin] has made a big mistake; he totally underestimated the strength of Ukrainian armed forces, the courage of Ukrainian leadership and the Ukrainian people, and he also underestimated the unity of NATO and partners in providing support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour Thursday.?

Speaking from the NATO Madrid summit, Stoltenberg said that Putin had failed in achieving his objectives when it came to weakening the NATO alliance.?

“That does not mean we don’t see the seriousness of the difficulties that Ukraine is facing in Donbas,” Stoltenberg said.??

Stoltenberg told CNN that he is ignoring Putin’s rhetoric and that he will “assess him on his actions.”?

“What he does in Ukraine is a brutal violation of international law. It is a war that has led to a lot of civilian casualties, civilians killed and huge losses,” he told CNN.?

The accomplishments at the NATO summit in Madrid are a “victory” for the military alliance, according to Stoltenberg.?

“It is a victory for NATO that we once again have demonstrated our unity and ability to change, adapt when the world is changing,” the NATO chief said.

“This is deterrence, and the purpose of deterrence is to prevent conflict. And that’s exactly what NATO has done for more than 70 years — prevent conflict and preserve peace,” he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a media conference at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

US President Joe Biden said the increase in gas prices and food shortages around the globe are due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports, not allowing grain to be exported from one of the main areas of grain production in the world.

“In addition, at?home … I’ve released a million?barrels of oil per day from our?oil reserve, and in addition to?getting other nations to move forward, a total of 240 million?barrels of oil to release from?the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, number one.?Number two, I have asked?Congress, would they in fact go?and temporarily end the?tax on gasoline at the pump,?and, thirdly to ask the states?to do the same thing.?If we do these things, it is?estimated we could bring down?tomorrow, if they — if Congress?agreed and the states agreed, we?could bring down the price of?oil about a dollar a gallon at?the pump in that range,” he said, adding it would bring “immediate relief.”

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a media conference at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

While pledging to “support?Ukraine as long as it takes,” US President Joe Biden said that the war in Ukraine has already taken a toll on Russia.

“Look at the impact that the war?on Ukraine has had on Russia.?They’ve had to renege on their?national debt for the first time?since the beginning, almost well over?100 years.?They’ve lost 15 years of the gains they’ve made in terms of their?economy.?They’re in a situation where?they’re having trouble because?of my imposition of dealing with?what can be exported to Russia,?in terms of technology.?They’re going to have trouble?maintaining oil production?because they don’t have the?technology to do it. … And they also are in a similar?situation in terms of their?weapons systems and some of?their military systems,” he said at a news conference concluding the NATO summit in Madrid. ?

Biden pledged the US and NATO will “stick with Ukraine.”

“Ukraine has already dealt a?severe blow to Russia: Russia in?fact has already lost its?international standing.?Russia is in a position where?the whole world is looking and?saying, ‘wait a minute, all this?effort to try to take the whole?country; you tried to take Kyiv, you?lost, you tried to take the?Donbas and all of it, you?haven’t done that yet,’” Biden said.

“The generic point is we’re?supplying them with the capacity?and the overwhelming courage?they have demonstrated that in?fact they can continue to resist?the Russian aggression.?And so I don’t know … how?it is going to end, but it will?not end with a Russian defeat of?Ukraine in Ukraine,” Biden continued.

US President?Joe?Biden sought to portray the transatlantic alliance as more united than ever as he prepared to depart Europe after two summits focused heavily on the war in Ukraine.

Biden said the United States was “doing exactly what I said” and enhancing its force posture in Europe.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a media conference at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, ON June 30.

He said the United States was “rallying the world to stand with Ukraine” and said he was preparing to unveil an additional $800 million in security assistance, including air defense systems, artillery, ammunition and counter-battery radar.

“We’re moving to a place that reflects the realities of the second quarter of the 21st century And we’re we’re on the verge of making significant progress,” he said.

“Putin thought we could break the Transatlantic Alliance,” he went on. “He tried to weaken us, expected our resolve the fracture, but he’s getting exactly what he did not want.”

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference on the final day of the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

US President Joe Biden said the decisions and deals announced at the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, show that NATO is “moving to a place that?reflects the realities of the?second quarter of the 21st?century.”

The world’s response to every crisis created due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows Putin is “getting exactly what he?did not want,” Biden said.

“He wanted the Finlandization of?NATO.?He got the natoization of?Finland,” Biden added, as NATO invited Sweden and Finland to join the US-led military alliance, which has drawn an angered response from Russia.?“We’re more united than ever. And with the addition to Finland and?Sweden, we’ll be stronger than ever. They have serious militaries,?both of them.?We’re going to increase the NATO?border by 800 miles along the?Finnish-Russian border.?Sweden is all in.”

Biden also noted NATO’s work to address price hike in gas and oil and food insecurity affecting different parts of the world because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We tasked our teams to work on the?details of the price cap on?Russian oil, to drive down?Putin’s revenues without hurting?Americans and others at the gas?pump.?We’ll seek to use the funds from the tariffs on?Russian goods to help Ukraine?rebuild.?We’ve committed?more than $ 4.5 billion — more than?half of that from the United?States — to address food?insecurity, and the immediate?crisis caused by the Russian?war.”

U.S. President Joe?Biden?holds a news conference before departing the NATO summit at the IFEMA arena in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

US President Joe Biden said the NATO summit in Madrid has been “historic” citing the decision to invite Finland and Sweden to the military alliance.

“This summit was about?strengthening our alliance,?meeting the challenges of our?world as it is today, and the?threats we’re going to face in?the future,” he said.

Biden also addressed how the alliance is looking to meet “the direct threats Russia poses to Europe” and the “systematic challenges that China poses.”

U.S. President Joe?Biden?holds a news conference before departing the NATO summit at the IFEMA arena in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

Before returning to Washington, US President Joe Biden is holding a news conference at the NATO summit in Madrid where he’s expected to address the state of the war in Ukraine.

With Russia bogged down in a long-term conflict of attrition, NATO leaders leave here having taken historic steps to address a fundamentally altered security situation. It has given the organization a renewed sense of purpose after years wavering on how to approach Russia.

The alliance is poised to grow larger after formally inviting Finland and Sweden to join. The path was cleared for the two countries, each with long histories of military non-alignment, after Turkey dropped its objections, giving this summit a somewhat unexpected boost as it commenced.

Leaders made major enhancements of NATO’s force posture along its eastern edge, increasing the number of high-alert troops by sevenfold. Biden announced new rotational deployments of US troops in the Baltics and Romania, new ships to Spain and planes to the United Kingdom, and for the first time a permanent Army garrison headquarters in Poland.

Read more about the summit here.

The mayor of Sloviansk, Vadym Liakh, has urged residents of the eastern Ukrainian city to evacuate as he issued a warning about the approach of Russian troops.

Six people were wounded and two of them were in “serious condition” after Russian forces fired on the city on Thursday, he said.

“Today at 11a.m., the enemy fired at the city of Sloviansk from multiple rocket launchers. Two explosions of cluster shells happened in a densely populated neighborhood, near a supermarket, as well as near a bus stop,” Liakh told Ukrainian broadcaster Espreso TV.?“The shelling is ongoing. The enemy is close.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference at the end of the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

NATO military officials are walking back the secretary general’s announcement earlier this week that 300,000 troops “will” be placed on high alert across the alliance, now saying the high number is a “concept” the bloc aims to enact by mid-2023.?

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that NATO “will increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000.”?

But it now appears that number is more aspirational, and is based on a new model NATO believes will take at least another year to accomplish.?

The initial announcement appeared to be a seven-fold increase from the 40,000 troops NATO currently has on high alert, and two NATO officials told CNN that number caught many NATO countries’ defense chiefs off guard.?

It was not clear to them, for example, which troops from each member state would need to contribute to that new high-readiness force, or whether enough countries had even been asked or agreed to provide the sufficient forces for it. It was a point of apparent confusion and disjointedness in an otherwise highly choreographed show of unity among the allies.?

Two senior NATO officials told reporters in a briefing on Thursday that the new high-readiness model will eventually replace the NATO Response Force model, but that it is “still a work in progress.”

The officials indicated that under the new model, many of the troops would remain in their home countries rather than move under the command of NATO’s Allied Command Operations. But they would be quickly available to NATO should a security crisis arise, such as if Russia were to attack a member country.?

Asked what the trigger would be to move those forces to high alert under NATO command, one of the officials would only say it will involve “indications and warnings” of a potential attack.?

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses a press conference on the second and final day of the NATO 2022 Summit at the IFEMA Trade Fair Center, Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday denied that sanctions against Russia by NATO members are to blame for the worsening food crisis.

“The impact is severe, including on some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Food prices are hitting record highs, and many countries depend on Ukraine for substantial wheat and other food imports,” he added, noting that NATO allies discussed efforts to mitigate the crisis and get grain out of Ukraine.

The NATO chief said that Turkey is trying to facilitate some kind of agreement and that Greece announced “that they are ready to make available ships to get grain out of Ukraine.”

Lithuania and Romania are making efforts “to expand their own land capacity by railway to transport more food,” he added.

Ukraine has begun exporting electricity to the European Union, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and the EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced on Thursday.

“In the first day alone, the state-owned enterprise Ukrenergo earned UAH 10 million from the sale of access to the interstate crossing,” he added. “The export potential of Ukrainian electricity to Europe is up to 2.5 GW. Under this scenario, the state will be able to receive more than UAH 70 billion a year.”

The President of the European Commission welcomed the move, saying it serves both Ukraine’s and the EU’s needs.

“It will provide an additional source of electricity for the EU. And much-needed revenues to Ukraine,” von der Leyen tweeted on Thursday. “So we both benefit.”

The first merchant ship has left the occupied Berdyansk port on the Azov sea on Thursday, according to Yevgeniy Balitsky, head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia military administration.?

Ukrainian officials say millions of Ukrainian grain exports are still on hold as Russia continues to block the country’s main export routes on Black and Azov sea. Russian officials have claimed the seaports of Mariupol and Berdyansk have been demined and operating normally since early June.

Balitsky reiterated claims by Russia that the waters surrounding the occupied port have been demined by the engineering units of Russia’s Novorossiysk Naval Base.

“The Berdyansk Bay and the port itself are fully secure. And the port workers and port equipment are ready for cargo handling operations,” he claimed in his Telegram post.?

If you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Volunteers distribute humanitarian aid in the town of Lyubotyn, Ukraine, on June 29.

Nearly 16 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations resident coordinator for Ukraine has said.

“Almost 16 million people in Ukraine today need humanitarian assistance?– water, food, health services, roof over their head and protection,” Osnat Lubrani said in a press conference Thursday.

“These are conservative numbers which United Nations is revising now.”

Lubrani added that at least six million people have so far been displaced internally by the conflict and another 5.3 million have fled abroad since the invasion on February 24.

Ukrainian servicemen study the Swedish made the Carl Gustaf M4, a shoulder-launched weapon system, during a training session near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 7.

Sweden will donate anti-tank weapons and demining equipment worth 500 million Swedish Krona ($49 million) to Ukraine, a Swedish official has said.

Talking to CNN on Thursday, Swedish defense ministry spokesperson Toni Eriksson said the equipment was requested by the Ukrainian government, and would be delivered “as soon as possible.”

Sweden has already donated military equipment to Ukraine on four previous occasions, he said, adding that they will also be providing further support weapons.

Eriksson did not give any details on further specifics of the equipment Sweden was giving.

The Russian barrage has continued on the eastern city of Lysychansk, according to Serhii Hayday, the head of Luhansk’s region military administration.

“People dream of at least half an hour of silence, but the occupiers do not stop firing from all available weapons,” Hayday said, giving a sense of what life is like in the beleaguered city.

In a Thursday morning update on the fate of the city, he said that Russian forces had destroyed the police headquarters and had begun targeting the oil refinery in the city. Russian attacks on the refinery continued on to Thursday morning.

He added that the body of a woman was found in a basement of a house that was also hit.

On Wednesday, Hayday reported that “around 15,000 people” still remained in the besieged city, despite being urged to evacuate over the past few weeks. Now, he says it is harder for people to leave.

“Now the density of fire is so strong. So much that we can only put 30 people on a bus,” he said.

Russia is open to a dialogue on strategic stability and nuclear non-proliferation, as well as improving the situation with arms control, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in his video address to the participants of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.

“Russia is open to dialogue on ensuring strategic stability, maintaining the non-proliferation regimes for weapons of mass destruction, and improving the situation in the field of arms control,” Putin said.

Russia is developing relations with everyone who is interested in this, he added.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier in June it is essential to continue communication between Russia and the US on the “principles of mutual respect, the indivisibility of security, consideration of mutual concerns and mutual benefit.”

British Prime Minister?Boris?Johnson?attends the Meeting of the North Atlantic Council Session at the NATO summit at the IFEMA arena in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

The United Kingdom will provide a further ￡1 billion ($1.2 billion) of military support to Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced at the NATO summit on Thursday.

“This uplift to funding will herald a new phase in the international community’s support to Ukraine,” a statement issued by No. 10 Downing Street said, adding it will support “sophisticated air defence systems, uncrewed aerial vehicles, innovative new electronic warfare equipment and thousands of pieces of vital kit for Ukrainian soldiers.”

“Putin’s brutality continues to take Ukrainian lives and threaten peace and security across Europe,” said Johnson.

“UK weapons, equipment and training are transforming Ukraine’s defences against this onslaught. And we will continue to stand squarely behind the Ukrainian people to ensure Putin fails in Ukraine,” he added.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Johnson on Twitter for announcing additional assistance to Ukraine.

“I’m grateful to??????Prime Minister @BorisJohnson for allocating an additional ￡1 billion for security assistance to Ukraine.??????is our true friend and strategic partner. We appreciate the consistent, leadership support for??????in countering Russian aggression,” Zelensky wrote.

Thursday’s announcement brings the total UK military support since the outbreak of war to ￡2.3 billion ($2.8 billion) — more than any country other than the United States, according to the statement.

The United Kingdom said Thursday it would send two counter-disinformation and defense reform military experts to Bosnia and Herzegovina to “counter Russian malign influence” in the country.

British experts, the UK government said, will reinforce the local NATO mission and “promote stability and security.”

The deployment comes following a request by NATO Headquarters Sarajevo, with British experts set to train Bosnian troops.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently facing the greatest existential threat in its post-war period, with secessionist leaders actively working to create further division and conflict. These plans are backed by Moscow as part of Putin’s drive to undermine both Bosnia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and its stability,” a UK government statement read.

The counter-disinformation expert would be tasked with strengthening NATO HQ’s ability to “block Russian and other efforts to sow mistrust and undermine democracy in the country and region,” while the defense reform adviser would help bring the Bosnian Armed Forces up to NATO standard.

In Thursday’s announcement, the UK government said it would provide ￡750,000 ($909,213) for the establishment of a cyber-security center of excellence at the University of Sarajevo.

“We cannot allow the Western Balkans to become another playground for Putin’s pernicious pursuits,” Johnson said.

“By fanning the flames of secessionism and sectarianism Russia seeks to reverse the gains of the last three decades in Bosnia and Herzegovina, gains that have brought more stability to our whole continent.”

Two British citizens Aiden Aslin, left, and Shaun Pinner, right, and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim, center, sit behind bars in a courtroom in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on June 9.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has urged Russia to ensure that the death penalty imposed on two British nationals by a pro-Russian court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is not carried out.

The ECHR on Thursday announced it had decided to grant interim measures in the cases of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, calling on Russia to ensure “appropriate conditions of their detention” and to provide them with any necessary medical assistance.

“The European Court of Human Rights has decided to grant interim measures in the cases of Pinner v. Russia and Ukraine, and Aslin v. Russia and Ukraine (application nos. 31217/22 and 31233/22) concerning two British nationals who are members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the ECHR said in a press release.

The two nationals had surrendered to Russian forces, and have since been sentenced to death.

“The Court indicated in particular to the Government of the Russian Federation, under Rule 39 (interim measures) of the Rules of Court, that they should ensure that the death penalty imposed on the applicants was not carried out,” the ECHR added.

The ECHR can grant interim measures in cases in which the court believes there is an “imminent risk of irreparable harm.” Such measures are only passed on an “exceptional basis,” according to the court.

Russia remains party to the European Convention on Human Rights until September 16, the Council of Europe said. Its membership gives the court jurisdiction in cases involving the Russian Federation.

The court also said on Thursday that the issue of jurisdiction in the so-called DPR is under “active consideration.”

Thursday’s decision followed an application by Pinner and Aslin on Monday.

The two British citizens and Moroccan national Brahim Saadoune were sentenced to death on June 9, accused of being “mercenaries” for Ukraine, according to Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti.

The ECHR granted interim measures in Saadoune’s case on June 16.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, speaks with U.S. President Joe Biden during a round table meeting at a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

US President Joe Biden and his fellow NATO leaders depart a highly consequential summit on Thursday that rendered the defense alliance larger, more muscular and more focused.

What’s unclear is whether any of the steps taken to respond to the war in Ukraine at this week’s meetings in Europe – new sanctions, more military aid and a reinvigorated NATO – can change the battlefield momentum that currently favors Russia.

Before returning to Washington, Biden will convene a news conference Thursday where he’s certain to address the state of the war. His top spy on Wednesday said the US assessment of the conflict remained “grim.”

The alliance is poised to grow larger after formally inviting Finland and Sweden to join. The path was cleared for the two countries, each with long histories of military non-alignment, after Turkey dropped its objections, giving this summit a somewhat unexpected boost as it commenced.

Leaders made major enhancements of NATO’s force posture along its eastern edge, increasing the number of high-alert troops by sevenfold. Biden announced new rotational deployments of US troops in the Baltics and Romania, new ships to Spain and planes to the United Kingdom, and for the first time a permanent Army garrison headquarters in Poland.

After dancing around the issue for years, NATO made clear in its updated mission statement that Russia now poses the “most significant threat to Allied security.” And it mentioned China for the first time, saying the budding partnership between Moscow and Beijing “runs counter to our values.”

Read more here.

The number of people who have died as a result of a bombing on a five-storey apartment building in the southern city of Mykolaiv has increased to six, according to the emergency services.

Eight missiles hit the city early on Wednesday, according to regional officials.

“The bodies of 6 people have been pulled from the building. A further 6 have been injured,” they said in a short post on Telegram.

The apartment was struck on Wednesday, and Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych earlier said the number of dead had risen to four. He said there had been a total of eight strikes, and the Russians had used a modified KH-55 missile in the attacks. He said he was not sure whether the apartment building that was hit was the intended target.

A total of 114 people have died in Mykolaiv since the war began.

Debris removal works continue at Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, on June 29.

The dismantling of the Kremenchuk mall and search for survivors in the aftermath of the Russian missile strike continued overnight Wednesday and into Thursday, according to the Mayor of Kremenchuk, Vitalii Maletskyi.

Rescue workers were now dismantling parts of the mall “near the epicenter of the explosion,” he said. Maletskyi added that the missile struck and exploded in a home appliance store and that the rubble in this part of the mall was extensive, so he feared this might be where other bodies may be found.

The number of dead remains at 18, but 21 people are still missing, he said.

The attack targeted a site in central Ukraine far away from the epicenter of Russia’s war, which has recently been focused in the east of the country. Ukrainian officials said the attack was conducted by a Russian KH-22 missile, which is capable of carrying an explosive warhead of up to 1 ton.

A general view of?Snake?Island, Ukraine, after a reported heavy overnight bombardment that forced Russian troops to stage an evacuation,?in this handout image obtained on June 30.

Russian forces have left Snake Island in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday, after they carried out what they said was a “successful” operation.

On Monday, the Ukrainian military said it hit a second missile system on the island, as well as multiple Russian personnel in their efforts to keep them at bay.

In a short post on Telegram the Operation Command South on Thursday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that “the enemy hastily evacuated the remnants of the garrison in two speedboats and probably left the island.”

Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said in a Telegram post that Ukraine’s armed forces had “conducted a remarkable operation.”

Early on Thursday Ukrainian Armed Forces said the results of an overnight operation were being assessed, but were viewed as a “success” as Russian forces were forced to evacuate using speedboats.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, said on Telegram that the “occupiers” had left after being “unable to withstand the fire of our artillery, missile and air strikes.”

He also thanked the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the Odesa region “who took the maximum measures to liberate a strategically important part of our territory,” referring to Snake Island.

However, Russia gave a slightly different narrative of the events on the island.

Lieutenant General of the Russian Armed Forces, and spokesperson of the Russian army, Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing that Russian forces left the island “as a gesture of goodwill.”

He added that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation finished fulfilling the assigned tasks in Snake Island and withdrew the garrison that had been operating there.”

Konashenkov intimated that the removal of Russian troops should allow an easing for the passage of grain, “this solution will prevent Kyiv from speculating on an impending grocery crisis citing the inability to export grain due to total control of the northwestern part of the Black Sea by Russia.”

A satellite image shows an overview of?Snake?Island, Ukraine, on May 12.

Some context: Snake Island is a small but strategic island in the Black Sea. It was the scene of one of the opening salvos of the war in Ukraine, with demands from a Russian warship calling for the Ukrainian defenders to surrender, who boldly replied with “Russian warship go f*** yourself.”

This post has been updated.

A Russian missile approaches a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, in this still image taken from handout CCTV footage released on June 28.

The bombing of the mall in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, “should be investigated as a potential war crime,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.

In a report published on Thursday, Yulia Gorbunova, a senior Ukraine researcher at HRW added that “if the Russian authorities don’t, the International Criminal Court and other investigative bodies should.”

In a thorough report into the bombing, HRW spoke with 15 people to publish their report, including the injured, doctors, mall staff, other witnesses and local officials.

Gorbunova added “the civilians of Kremenchuk who suffered such an intense loss from June 27 strike, deserve justice. There needs to be a thorough investigation, and those responsible should be held to account.”

Having a neighbor like Russia at the end of the street means 59-year-old Vytas Grudzinskas doesn’t get much rest. “I can see the soldiers best at night,” he says, pointing to a patch of green behind his neighbor’s garden.

“They have a shooting range they use over there behind that field. In the afternoon, you can hear the guns,” he said.

Grudzinskas has his own weapon, a machine gun, which he keeps locked in a cupboard, close at hand — although his guard dog, a Maltese terrier, might be less effective in battle.

The small city of Kybartai where Grudzinska lives lies inside both?NATO?and the European Union but also along one of the world’s hottest borders — the Suwalki corridor. This tract of land, about 60 miles wide, is sandwiched between Russia’s heavily fortified, nuclear-armed, Baltic bolthole of Kaliningrad and its ally, Belarus.

The pass — viewed by many analysts as a weak point within NATO — is caught in a pincer grip between Kremlin troops. The fear is that if Ukraine fell, Russia would advance through it next, possibly cutting off the Baltic states in days.

The scars of Soviet occupation run deep in this part of Europe. Tens of thousands of Lithuanians were forcibly deported to gulags in Siberia and the far north by the Soviets in the 1940s and 1950s. Almost 30,000 Lithuanian prisoners perished in the forced labor camps.

So, when Russia?annexed Crimea in 2014, Grudzinskas joined Lithuania’s century-old volunteer militia — the Riflemen — and took up arms in his own backyard.

Read the full story here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a fresh warning over Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO, saying while Russia was not bothered if the two countries joined the bloc, it would “respond symmetrically” to any military or infrastructure build up.

Here are the latest headlines.

Rescuers work at a residential building hit by a Russian military strike in?Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on June 29.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 10 Russian missiles hit “civilian targets” in the southern city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday, killing at least five people.

“There were also strikes at Ochakiv, Dnipro, the Russian shelling of the Kharkiv region, Sumy region, Donbas.”

Zelensky also said the situation in Lysychansk, Avdiivka, and communities in the Bakhmut direction “remains extremely brutal, very difficult.”

“We are doing everything we can to provide our military with modern artillery systems to respond properly to the occupiers,” he said.

Some context: Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych on Wednesday said there were “only 18 days” since the start of the invasion that the southern Ukrainian city was not fired upon with missiles or cluster shells.

More than 114 residents had died due to Russian attacks in that time, he said. It was not clear if that number included all casualties cited by Zelensky later that day.

The US intelligence community assesses that it will take “years” for the Russian military to recover from the damage it has sustained in carrying out its war in Ukraine, according to the director for national intelligence Avril Haines.

That could push Russia to become more reliant on “asymmetric tools” such as cyberattacks, efforts to try to control energy, or even nuclear weapons in order to project “power and influence,” she said.

Grim assessment: Haines said Russia is beginning to turn its focus to the Donetsk region. The intelligence community believes Russia will struggle to overtake the eastern province — as it is close to achieving in neighboring Luhansk — but that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely believes time is on Moscow’s side because he thinks the West will eventually tire of supporting Ukraine.

Three scenarios: Haines said the intelligence community sees three likely scenarios that could come into focus in the coming weeks and months.

“The most likely is that the conflict remains a grinding struggle in which the Russians make incremental gains, but no breakthrough,” she said. Under that scenario, the Russian military will have secured Luhansk and much of Donetsk by the fall, as well as solidifying control of southern Ukraine.

The other scenarios are that Russia could achieve a breakthrough and refocus on Kyiv or Odesa; or, finally, that Ukraine could stabilize the front line and begin to make smaller gains, likely in Kherson or elsewhere in southern Ukraine.

Latvian?Prime?Minister?Kri?jānis Kari?? hailed the decisions made by?NATO?leaders in Madrid?to?bolster its presence on the alliance’s?eastern?flank, calling it a “very, very clear signal to Moscow.”

In an interview with?CNN?Wednesday,?the Baltic state leader?noted?that?“in a sense, everything?that?we’ve been arguing for has been?clearly heard,” saying?the change in posture is “a change from a tripwire defense?to?a forward defense.”

Kari???said he would like?to?see support for Ukraine move even more quickly, because “the faster we in?NATO?can provide weapons, munitions and training, the sooner the war will come?to?an end.”

Some context: Speaking at the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, President Joe Biden?said the United States?would establish a permanent headquarters for the Fifth Army Corps in Poland and enhance rotational deployments?to?the Baltic states. Latvia is one of the Baltic states, and shares land borders with both Russia and Belarus.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says Russia is not bothered if Sweden and Finland join NATO but warns they will respond in kind to any “threats.”

Putin added, however, that the NATO expansion would bring “tensions.”

NATO expansion: Sweden and Finland are set formally to end decades of neutrality and?join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?(NATO), in a historic breakthrough for the alliance that deals a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The last major hurdle to the two nations’ entry to the bloc was removed when Turkey dropped its opposition on Tuesday.?

That breakthrough came during a NATO summit in Madrid that has already become one of the most?consequential meetings in the history of the military alliance.

An aerial view of debris removal works at a destroyed shopping mall targeted by a Russian missile strike in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, on June 29.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday denied that Russia was behind a strike on a shopping center in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, that left at least 18 dead and dozens missing and wounded.??

“The Russian army does not attack any civilian site. We don’t have the need for this. We have every capability to detect specific locations; and thanks to our high-precision long-range weapons we are achieving our goals,”?Putin said, at a news conference following a meeting of the “Caspian five” leaders — Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — in Ashgabat.?

More background: On its Telegram channel, the Russian Defense Ministry earlier said Russian “Aerospace Forces launched a strike with high-precision air-based weapons on hangars with weapons and ammunition received from the United States and European countries,” hitting a plant of “road machines.”

The ministry blamed “the detonation of stored ammunition for Western weapons” for causing a fire in what it described as a “non-functioning” neighboring shopping mall.

A view of the explosion at the Kremenchuk shopping mall, Ukraine, in this still image taken from handout CCTV footage released on June 28.

Video from Kremenchuk?shows that a shopping mall in the heart of the city was obliterated by one of the two missiles that were fired. Despite an air raid siren, dozens of people were still inside the mall when the missile struck.

It’s unclear what “road machine” plant the Russian Defense Ministry is referring to.

Russian forces attempting to storm Lysychansk are maintaining shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city where some 15,000 people remain, Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, said on Wednesday.?

Hayday also said “around 15,000 people” remain in Lysychansk, despite a recommendation from officials in the past few weeks that they evacuate from the front line. But with the city under constant shelling, it has become much harder for people to leave.?

“Now the density of fire is so strong. So much that we can only put 30 people on a bus,” he said. “Therefore, we are very careful about this.”

“The Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway has not been used for a long time. But we have other routes, we do not name them, and we have the opportunity to pick up something sometimes,” he added. “Now is the peak of hostilities.”

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a meeting at the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 29.

US President Joe Biden and fellow NATO leaders assembled in Madrid Wednesday to unveil a significant strengthening of forces along the alliance’s eastern flank as Russia’s war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing.

Speaking alongside NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, Biden listed new troop movements, equipment shipments and military installations meant to demonstrate the importance of security in the face of Moscow’s aggression.

Biden said the US would:

“No communication with Moscow”: The US did not convey to Russia its plans to bolster its force posture in Europe ahead of time.

“There has been no communication with Moscow about these changes nor is there a requirement to do that,” John Kirby, the NSC coordinator for strategic communications, said after Biden announced the series of measures.

A second official told reporters the announcements did not violate any agreements between Russia and NATO, which stipulate parameters for positioning troops in Europe.

Read more here.

Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson speaks next to?Finland's President Sauli Niinisto during a news conference at the?NATO?summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 29.

NATO formalized its invitation to Sweden and Finland to join its alliance Wednesday, a historic expansion of the defense bloc that directly undercuts Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aims as his war in Ukraine grinds ahead.

The group collectively decided to approve countries’ applications to join after Turkey dropped its objections Tuesday, paving the way for NATO’s most consequential enlargement in decades.

What happens next: The decision will now go to the 30 member states’ parliaments and legislatures for final ratification. NATO’s leaders said they expected the process to move quickly, allowing for an unprecedentedly swift accession and a show of unity against Putin.

Read more here.

Indonesian President?Joko?Widodo?and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky arrive for a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 29.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo in Kyiv Wednesday and accepted his personal invitation to attend the G20 summit in Bali in November.?

“Ukraine’s participation will depend on the security situation in Ukraine and who else might be attending,” Zelensky said at the joint press briefing to mark Widodo’s first visit to Ukraine.?

Zelensky went on to say Widodo’s visit was important to help stop the war.??

Widodo also said he offered to convey a message of peace from Zelensky to Russian President Vladimir Putin when he meets with him on Thursday.?Widodo also invited Putin to the G20.

The?Indonesian President also discussed the importance of Ukraine to the world food supply chain, saying, “all efforts must be made so that Ukraine can return to exporting food again.”

Remember: In April, Putin accepted an invitation to attend the G20 summit, Widodo had announced. However, there has been vehement opposition to the prospect of his attendance. The White House has conveyed privately to Indonesia that Russia should not be allowed to participate in this year’s G20 summit. Finance ministers from multiple nations walked out of a closed-door G20 session in Washington in April when the Russian delegate began his prepared remarks.

CNN’s Masrur Jamaluddin contributed reporting to this post.

The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published an alarming report Wednesday about the human rights situation in Ukraine in the context of the ongoing Russian invasion.

The UN documented 10,000 civilian casualties since the conflict began on Feb. 24, “among them, 4,731 people were killed,” Matilda Bogner, head of Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told journalists in Kyiv as she presented the report’s findings.

She warned the casualty numbers are “considerably higher” as the report only highlights the figures the mission was able to independently verify.?

The report is based on information gathered during 11 field visits, three visits to places of detention and 517 interviews with victims and witnesses between Feb. 24?and May 15, 2022. The evidence also draws from court documents, official records and open sources.

The elected Ukrainian mayor of?Kherson?was arrested Tuesday, according to?pro-Russian?officials in the city, hours before the region’s Russian-backed administration announced plans for a referendum.

Ihor Kolykhaiev’s arrest comes amid growing efforts by the Russian-appointed authorities in the region to strip it of Ukrainian associations, as well as occasional assassination attempts against people collaborating with the Russians.

Kolykhaiev has remained in the city throughout the occupation, but the Russian-backed authorities had removed him from office.

Speaking about his arrest, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region, said Kolykhaiev had “posed as a benefactor” but “made every effort to ensure that some people continued to believe in the return of neo-Nazism.”

Stremousov also claimed, without offering evidence, that Kolykhaiev “stole millions, and gave people a penny.”

“I believe that just retribution will come to all those who want blood, death and war,” he added.

Read more here.