WAR IN UKRAINE: June 28, 2022

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 128

The US plans to announce as soon as this week that it has purchased an advanced, medium-to-long range surface-to-air missile defense system for Ukraine, a source familiar with the announcement tells CNN. Other military assistance is also likely to be announced this week, including additional artillery ammunition and counter-battery radars.
The death toll from a missile strike on a shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk has risen to at least 16. More than 1,000 people were believed to be in the facility when it was struck by Russian missiles Monday, triggering an intense fire. The attack also injured at least 59 people. G7 leaders meeting in Germany have termed it a war crime. "Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime," they said in a joint statement.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the western military alliance will boost its high readiness forces to "well over 300,000" in response to Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, RFE/RL reported. Speaking ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid, Stoltenberg said on June 27 that the alliance will enhance its battle groups on its eastern flank up to brigade levels. “We will strengthen our forward defenses...We will transform the NATO Response Force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000," Stoltenberg told reporters.
The UK will help counter the sale of stolen Ukrainian grain. Britain will provide technology to test wheat in order to prevent Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia in the temporarily occupied territories from entering the world market. According to British Environment Minister George Justis, the British government is cooperating with Kyiv to provide land routes for the safe export of wheat. He added, "We are looking at what we can do to help repair the railways, look at the land bridge so we can transport that wheat across the land border because it's dangerous to bring ships into the Black Sea." Currently, 25 million tons of grain are stored near Odesa, which must be exported as soon as possible before the new harvest arrives.
Moldova President Maia Sandu traveled to Ukraine on June 27 in her first trip to her neighbor since start of the war and visited the towns of Bucha and Irpin -- sites of alleged Russian atrocities against civilians. “No matter the economic costs, no matter the political costs we have to stop war and we have to make sure that these kinds of atrocities will never repeat,” Maia Sandu said. She said it was “heartbreaking” to hear accounts from witnesses and victims of the war - RFE/RL.
The city of Slovyansk in Ukraine's Donetsk region is preparing for a major offensive by Russian forces. Ukraine's territorial-defense units are defending Slovyansk and nearby villages. Local residents have been urged to evacuate, but many refuse to leave the city despite Russian bombardments and increasingly difficult living conditions. Watch the RFE/RL video here