What the world's leaders did after the Kremenchuk strike
A look back at the diplomatic days around 30 June 2022, from the G7 in Germany to the NATO summit in Madrid.
What had Ukraine's partners committed to by 30 June 2022? The days leading up to that date brought a strike on a civilian site and a run of pledges from allied capitals.
On 27 June 2022, two missiles hit a crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk. Initial reports said at least 13 people were killed and at least 50 injured, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than a thousand people were inside at the time. Later accounts put the toll at at least 20 dead and at least 59 injured, and said the missiles were Kh-22 cruise missiles that struck the Kredmash road machinery plant and the adjacent Amstor mall in the Poltava Oblast city.
The same day, leaders at the G7 summit in Germany issued a statement pledging more financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine. It followed a video message from Zelenskyy asking allies for more heavy weapons.
On 29 June 2022, at the NATO summit in Madrid, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that a new permanent U.S. military base would be set up in Poland, as the headquarters of the 5th Army. The command had maintained a forward post in Poznań since the previous year, and Poland's government had long requested such a base.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, had travelled to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan from 26 June 2022, his first foreign trip since the invasion of Ukraine.
