WAR IN UKRAINE: June 28, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 490
As Tuesday drew to a close, horrifying video began to come out of Kramatorsk after Russian missiles hit the strategic eastern Ukrainian city - killing nine people and injuring 42 (including an 8-month-old baby) Ukrainian media reporting. NSC spox John Kirby condemned the attack. View the video (warning - graphic) here. Among the dead were a 17-year-old girl and 14-year-old twin sisters. According to the emergency services, there are still victims under the rubble. The prosecutor general says the strikes were carried out with Iskander ballistic missiles, fast & hard to intercept.
Six explosions reported in Russian-occupied Melitopol: A "series of explosions" occurred in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, according to Vladimir Rogov, a collaborator with the illegal occupation administration in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Rogov wrote on Telegram at around 1 a.m. local time that six explosions had occurred, adding that more details would follow - Kyiv Independent
A Russian government plane has flown to Washington DC to ferry key diplomats back to Moscow amid rising tensions with the West, i can reveal. The Russian long-haul airliner forms part of Vladimir Putin’s special flight squadron – his presidential fleet – used to transport the Russian president and his government officials. The flight to the US took off from Moscow at 9.27am GMT on Tuesday and took an obscure route avoiding EU airspace, deciding instead to wrap around the northern tip of Norway, according to public flight data. A US State Department spokesperson confirmed to i the flight was due to bring Russian US-based diplomats back to Moscow. They said: “The US government has allowed the Russian government to send a charter flight to the United States to transport to Russia those Russian diplomats whose assignments have ended. “We also maintain strict reciprocity with Russia regarding special transport missions.” State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, later told reporters: “In exchange for granting these courtesies, we expect Russia to maintain open transport for our diplomats and cargo to our embassy in Moscow.” On their return, the diplomats will be able to brief senior Moscow spy chiefs on the latest thinking in Washington relating to Wagner’s aborted coup and Putin’s position. A former senior US intelligence official said the plane may also be carrying replacement diplomats, including potential intelligence agents, to the US. “I believe this flight will have diplomats and agents that will first meet with their counterparts in their Washington DC embassy,” the official told i. The intelligence official, who spent decades identifying Russian agents for the US government, said “if deemed appropriate” the Russian diplomats would schedule “high-level diplomatic meetings” with the US State Department. “We will just have to wait and see. The Russian government plane landed at Washington Dulles airport on Tuesday evening, where US authorities were understood to be monitoring any potential arrivals.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), once the darling of Congress’ hard-right and a staunch opponent of sending US military aid to Ukraine, now faces an uncertain future within a group of her own ideological allies. New tensions are the byproduct of a long-growing divide among some of the right-wing Freedom Caucus’ most vocal members over strategy, style and support for former President Trump. The group discussed whether to kick Greene out during a meeting Friday morning, though no final decision has been made, Axios’ Juliegrace Brufke reported.
