Russia-Ukraine war: one killed as Kyiv hit by missile strikes; G7 leaders gather in Germany

Contents

One civilian confirmed killed in Kyiv attack One civilian confirmed killed in Kyiv attack Summary

One civilian confirmed killed in Kyiv attack

Volkova Ekaterina, a Russain woman was among the wounded in the attack on Kyiv. Her passport was shown to reporters. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Russian missiles struck a residential building and the compound of a kindergarten in central Kyiv on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five more, according to a Reuters update.

Firefighters put out a fire in a badly damaged nine-storey residential building in the central Shevchenkivskiy district, the emergency services said. Debris was strewn over parked cars outside a smouldering building with a crater in its roof.

“They (rescuers) have pulled out a seven-year-old girl. She is alive. Now they’re trying to rescue her mother,” Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said

“There are people under the rubble,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. He added that several people had already been hospitalised.

At another site about 400 metres away, a Reuters photographer saw a large blast crater by a playground in a private kindergarten that had smashed windows. Some privately-held storage garages in the area were completely destroyed.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had used high-precision weapons to strike Ukrainian army training centres in the regions of Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Lviv, an apparent reference to strikes reported by Ukraine on Saturday.

There was no immediate comment about Sunday’s strikes on Kyiv. Moscow denies targeting civilians.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Group of Seven countries holding a three-day summit in Germany to impose further sanctions on Moscow and to provide more heavy weapons.

A Ukrainian air force spokesperson said between four to six long-range missiles were fired from Russian bombers more than a thousand kilometres away in the southern Russian region of Astrakhan that looks out onto the Caspian Sea.

He said some of the incoming missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defences.

Ukraine’s police chief Ihor Klymenko said on national television that five people had been wounded. Police later confirmed that one person had died.

People gather to protest against Nato in Madrid, Spain Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Thousands of anti-war protesters people have taken to the streets of Madrid ahead of a Nato summit later this week.

Amid tight security, leaders of the member countries will meet in Madrid between 29-30 June as the organisation faces the unprecedented challenge of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nato is expected to consider the bid, opposed by alliance-member Turkey, for Finland and Sweden to join.

The Nordic nations applied in the wake of the Russian assault on Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the war a special military operation he says in part responds to the accession to NATO of other countries near post-Soviet Russia’s borders since the 1990s.

“Tanks yes, but of beer with tapas,” sang demonstrators, who claimed an increase in defence spending in Europe urged by Nato was a threat to peace.

“I am fed up (with) this business of arms and killing people. The solution they propose is more arms and wars and we always pay for it. So, no Nato, no bases, let the Americans go and leave us alone without wars and weapons,” said Concha Hoyos, a retired Madrid resident, told Reuters.

Another protester, Jaled, 29, said Nato was not the solution to the war in Ukraine.

Organisers claimed 5,000 people joined the march, but authorities in Madrid put the number at 2,200.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that the summit would also focus on the threat from Europe’s southern flank in Africa, in which he said Russia posed a threat to Europe.

“The foreign ministers’ dinner on the 29th will be centred on the southern flank,” he told El Pais newspaper.

Andriy Yermak, the head of office to Presisent Zelenksiy, has called on the G7 to respond to Russia’s missile attacks on Kyiv with more aggressive sanctions.

He tweeted that Russian gas as well as gold should be banned.

The #G7 states should respond to new Russian terror attacks on cities. Sanctions should be more aggressive. We appreciate embargo on RF gold exports, but gas embargo should be included in the new sanctions package.

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) June 26, 2022

Yermak also called for naval assistance in the Black Sea, to help lift Russia grip on Ukraine’s ports.

Third parties’ navy convoys to unlock our ports are a feasible response to the food crisis.
Russia designation a state sponsor of terrorism is absolutely necessary.
Heavy weapons for are a way to defeat a foe who understands the force language only.

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) June 26, 2022

Jackets stayed on for the G7 family photo, but ties were off.

Leaders of the G7 gather for lunch on the first day of a summit at Elmau Castle in Kruen, Germany Photograph: Filippo Attili/CHIGI PALACE PRESS OFFICE/EPA

World leaders mocked Vladimir Putin’s tough-man image at a G7 lunch, joking about whether they should strip down to shirtsleeves – or even less, AFP reports.

“Jackets on? Jackets off? Do we take our coats off?” Boris Johnson asked as he sat down at the table in Bavaria’s picturesque Elmau Castle, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz was hosting the summit of seven powerful democracies.

The leaders – from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and also the European Union – pondered the dilemma.

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, suggested “let’s wait” for the official picture before disrobing, but then Johnson quipped “we have to show that we’re tougher than Putin” and the joke kept rolling.

“We’re going to get the bare-chested horseback riding display,” Trudeau said, referring to Putin’s infamous 2009 photo-op of himself riding shirtless on a horse.

“Horseback riding is the best,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, without apparently weighing in on the clothing issue itself.

The leaders posed – jackets on – for photos before reporters were hustled out of the room, leaving the sartorial debate behind closed doors.

Updated at 14.21 BST

Boris Johnson said he would be “honoured” to host Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a state visit if the Ukrainian president felt able to leave his war-torn country, PA reports.

The prime minister stressed the most important thing now for Ukraine was for western leaders at the G7 summit in Germany to remain united in support of President Zelensky.

“I think that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has done an absolutely amazing job of leading his country and leading world opinion in an appalling time,” Johnson told ITV News at the summit in Bavaria.

Asked if he wanted to offer the Ukrainian leader a state visit, Johnson said:

If he ever becomes free to leave and it makes sense for him to leave Ukraine, then obviously the UK would be only too honoured to host him.

But the most important thing is for us to continue to be united here at the G7. And we are.

The Sunday Times reported that ministers were considering offering Zelensky a state visit, including a meeting with the Queen.

Tory officials would also like him to address the party’s conference in October, possibly via a video link, the newspaper reported.

Zelenskiy, who will address G7 leaders by video link on Monday, pleaded for more air defence support from western allies.

After dozens of Russian missiles targeted Ukrainian towns and cities, he used his nightly address to say:

This confirms that sanctions packages against Russia are not enough, that Ukraine needs more armed assistance, and that air defence systems – the modern systems that our partners have – should be not in training areas or storage facilities, but in Ukraine, where they are now needed.

“Needed more than anywhere else in the world.

France on Sunday urged oil producers to cap prices to help put the squeeze on Russia, AFP reports.

Paris backs a US proposal for a maximum oil price, but the French presidency said that “it would be much more powerful if it came from the producing countries.”

To make such a measure work, it was “necessary to get into a discussion with OPEC+ and with the world’s oil producers,” said the source, referring to the 23-country group.

The United States had suggested a price cap decided by consuming countries, a proposal that is due to be discussed by G7 leaders meeting in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday.

But Germany believes that the measure would be too difficult to put in place.

A senior German official said “we are still intensively discussing how this would work and how that can fit in with the American, British, European and Japanese sanction regimes.”

EU President Charles Michel also said discussions were ongoing but “we want to go more into the details”.

“We want to make sure that … the goal is to target Russia and not to make our life more difficult and more complex,” he said.

One civilian confirmed killed in Kyiv attack