WAR IN UKRAINE: June 27, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 127
Telegram channels in Ukraine reporting the mall in Kremenchuk was packed with women and children. The number of victims is even impossible to imagine, said a Ukraine official.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has addressed the G7 summit via video-link, calling for more weapons for Ukraine. He tells global leaders gathered in Germany that he wants the war to end by the end of the year "before winter sets in", sources say
G7 leaders pledge to support Ukraine "for as long as it takes" and tell Russia it must allow free passage of food from Ukraine, reports BBC. UK PM Boris Johnson says the "price of freedom is worth paying" when asked about the cost of helping defend Ukraine. However, their latest demand Russian President Putin withdraw his troops immediately and unconditionally is extremely unlikely to be met.
Sanctions push Russia to first foreign default since 1918. Russia has defaulted on its foreign-currency sovereign debt for the first time in a century due to punitive Western sanctions imposed for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. June 26 marked the expiry of a 30-day grace period for the payment of around $100 million to investors, reports Bloomberg. Since 2014, the last time the West sanctioned Russia over its annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin had built up about $640 billion in foreign reserves, reported CNN. About half of those funds are now frozen under Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.
Agriculture Ministry: Russia has stolen at least 400,000 tons of grain since Feb. 24. Before the current Russian invasion, there were 1.5 million tons of grain in the territories that are currently occupied by Russia, according to Taras Vysotsky, the first deputy agriculture minister.
NATO will increase military assistance to Ukraine; this decision is expected from the three-day summit in Madrid. Diplomats say NATO leaders hope to agree on increased military aid to Ukraine, increased joint defense spending, cementing new resolve to counter China's military rise, and deploying more troops to defend the Baltic states - wires
Uprooted by war, some Ukrainians in the UK now face homelessness alone. CNN spoke to half a dozen newly-arrived refugees from Ukraine who have become homeless in the UK after their relationships with British hosts deteriorated, leaving them confused and isolated -- and facing a daunting amount of red tape. Read full story here
People escaping famine in north African countries triggered by a shortage of grain due to Russia’s blockade on exports from Ukraine amid its invasion of the country have started to arrive in Italy. Over the past six months, 26,000 people landed on Italy’s southern shores by boat, up 28% on the same period last year, according to a report in La Stampa newspaper on Monday that cited interior ministry figures - The Guardian
Satellite imagery shows at least two key water facilities in the Donbas have been damaged since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As one expert told Bellingcat, such disruption and destruction likely adds yet another dimension to the human catastrophe in the Donbas. Read here