What did 28 June 2023 follow in Ukraine's war news?
A look back at the reports that framed 28 June 2023: the Kramatorsk strike, Prigozhin's arrival in Belarus, small gains in Donetsk Oblast and new Australian aid.
What was the picture on 28 June 2023, as Ukraine absorbed a run of news from the previous two days? Reports from 26 and 27 June pointed in several directions at once: an attack on civilians, a political turn in Russia, incremental advances on the ground and fresh foreign support.
Kramatorsk
On 27 June 2023 a Russian missile struck a restaurant in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast. It killed 13 civilians and injured 61 others, as reported at the time. Later accounts put the time of the strike at 19:29 and said the café, named RIA, was in the centre of the city. They also said four of the dead were children, and that a second missile hit the private housing of the Bilenke neighbourhood, wounding five residents. Those details emerged afterwards, but the core of the event was clear from the first reports: a strike on civilians at an eating place.
Prigozhin in Belarus
Also on 27 June, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, had arrived in Belarus. He said this was in line with an agreement reached with the Russian government. The arrangement followed the Wagner rebellion, which began on the evening of 23 June 2023 and ended on the evening of 24 June after Lukashenko held talks with Prigozhin. Under the terms, the criminal case against Prigozhin for armed mutiny was to be closed, Wagner was to move to field camps, and Prigozhin was to go to Belarus.
Gains and aid
On the front line, Ukrainian forces recaptured the uninhabited village of Rivnopil in Donetsk Oblast on 26 June, according to Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar. She described it as the ninth village retaken in the previous month.
Support from abroad continued as well. On 26 June Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a AU$110 million military aid package for Ukraine.
A day of contrasts
Taken together, the reports from those days showed a war whose civilian toll remained severe, as in Kramatorsk, even as the Kremlin dealt with the aftermath of an internal revolt and Ukraine reported steady if modest territorial gains. The Kramatorsk attack, in particular, stood as a reminder of the risks faced far from the front, in a city's evening dining spots.
