Russian airstrike hits busy mall in central Ukraine

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.

"More than a thousand people worked all night — rescuers, police, medics and volunteers," he said.

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 fired at the positions of our troops with artillery and MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System), conducted aerial reconnaissance with UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle)," the General Staff said.

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. 

"Fighting is underway between Vovchoiarivka and the oil refinery. They are trying to block the city from this side and take control over the transport connection with Donetsk region," he said Tuesday. 

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.

"There was a lot of damage to high-rise buildings and private houses on June 27," he said. "Some areas of the city were shelled several times."

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.

A Russian airstrike struck a bustling shopping mall in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine on Monday, setting the building ablaze and prompting concerns of mass casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the strike that up to 1,000 people were in the mall before the air raid was announced.

"Fortunately, as far as we know, at that time, many people managed to get out, they managed to get out, but there were still people inside — workers and some visitors," he said.

At least 15 people were killed, according to a Telegram post from Dmytro Lunin, the head of the Poltava region military administration, who said earlier that the death toll could rise. At least 58 people were injured, Ukraine's State Emergency Services said.

Zelensky said in his nightly video address Monday that the rescue operation was ongoing and that "we must be aware that the losses can be significant."

Video from the scene showed heavy smoke billowing from the building, which was engulfed by fire. The mall measures about one hectare — roughly the size of two football fields — and the strike occurred around 4 p.m. local time, Solohub said.

"We don't know how many more people might be under the rubble," said Volodymyr Solohub, a regional official in the Poltava Oblast local administration.

"A peaceful city, an ordinary shopping mall with women inside, children, ordinary civilians inside," he said.

"Only totally insane terrorists, who should have no place on earth, can strike missiles at such an object. And this is not an off-target missile strike, this is a calculated Russian strike — exactly at this shopping mall."

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.

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A senior US defense official called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “cavalier” language around the nuclear-capable missile systems pledged to Belarus “pretty irresponsible.”

“Our strategic forces are always monitoring things in that regard,” said the official in a background call with reporters. “We are certainly taking that seriously and have taken that threat seriously from the very beginning.”

Here's the full quote:

“Certainly any time anybody uses the word nuclear, you have concerns. Quite honestly it seems pretty irresponsible of a national leader to talk about the employment of nuclear weapons and to do so in a generally cavalier fashion. In terms of my concerns, other than the fact that they talk about, again, I mean the way that that statement read from Putin was, hey we’re going to give them Iskanders, and oh by the way they can hold nuclear weapons. And everybody takes that very seriously when you use that language. So we are certainly taking that seriously and have taken that threat seriously from the very beginning. And as you know our strategic forces are always monitoring things in that regard.”

Some context: Russia will transfer nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile systems to Belarus over the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting in St. Petersburg on Saturday.

“In the next few months, we will transfer to Belarus the Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which, as you know, can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions," Putin told Lukashenko, according to the Kremlin.

In a transcript of the meeting, Lukashenko expressed to Putin his "stress" and concerns over what he alleged are flights by the United States and NATO planes "training to carry nuclear warheads" close to Belarus' border.

Lukashenko asked Putin to consider “a mirrored response" to the flights or to convert Russia's Su-35 fighter jets, which are currently deployed to Belarus, so that "they can carry nuclear warheads."

Putin replied that although it is possible to match the US flights, "there is no need," and suggested that because Belarus' military has a large number of Su-25 aircraft that can be converted to nuclear-capable instead.

“This modernization should be carried out at aircraft factories in Russia, but we will agree with you on how to do this. And accordingly, start training the flight crew,” Putin said.

The Iskander-M is a Russian-built short-range ballistic missile system that can carry conventional or nuclear warheads with a maximum range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), according to Janes Defense.

The weapon uses both optical and inertial guidance systems to strike its targets, hitting them with a range of warheads, such as cluster munitions, vacuum bombs, bunker-busters, and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warheads, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. 

The Iskander-M was first used in 2008 during the Russia-Georgia conflict, when the Russian Army used it to hit targets in Gori, according to the alliance.

Mariya Knight and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report

Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since the Bolshevik revolution more than a century ago.

Following reports that Moscow had failed to pay about $100 million in interest on two bonds during a 30-day grace period that expired Sunday, the White House said the default showed the power of Western sanctions imposed on Russia since it invaded Ukraine.

"This morning's news around the finding of Russia's default, for the first time in more than a century, situates just how strong the reactions are that the US, along with allies and partners, have taken, as well as how dramatic the impact has been on Russia's economy," a senior administration official said on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Germany.

Russia denied it was in default, saying the payments had been made, in dollars and euros, on May 27 and the money was stuck with Euroclear, a settlement house based in Belgium.

The historic default had been widely anticipated after half Russia's foreign reserves were frozen and the US Treasury ended a carve-out from sanctions that had allowed US bondholders to be repaid by Russia.

The European Union also made it harder for Moscow to meet its debt obligations earlier this month by sanctioning Russia's National Settlement Depository, the country's agent for its foreign currency bonds.

Still, it took longer than many had expected: Sanctions have largely failed to cripple Russia's economy, as surging energy prices have padded the country's coffers.

Read more here.