June 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A "serious disruption" to the European Union's gas supplies from Russia is “likely,” the bloc's energy chief said on Monday, urging countries to step up their preparedness.   

“The situation is deteriorating. While the gas supply to the member states is currently guaranteed, the security of supply risks are greater than ever,” she added, noting that Russian gas exports to the EU are half of what they were a year ago. 

However, she said the security of supply risks were “not immediate” and the European gas system had “reacted well and so far has been able to absorb the cuts.” 

Simson said the European Commission will propose an EU plan to prepare for further gas shocks in July, as Russia has already cut or reduced supplies to 12 of the bloc's 27 member states. 

The heads of EDF, Engie and TotalEnergies released a joint statement, appealing to their customers in France for “urgent restraint” on Monday, asking them to cut back on energy usage amid soaring prices.

The rising prices resulting from this “threaten social and political cohesion and have too heavy an impact on the purchasing power of families," they added.

The three industry heads said they had taken action to tackle supply in the short term by “diversifying gas supplies, proactively filling storage facilities, installing a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in the port of Le Havre to accelerate LNG imports, and reactivating 'mothballed' facilities.”

However, they called on their customers to do their part and reduce their consumption of electricity, gas, oil and energy products, starting from the summer, saying “the best energy remains the energy we do not consume.”

“We must act on energy demand by reducing our consumption to give us more room for maneuver. We will need it to manage future consumption peaks and to cushion the technical hazards or geopolitical shocks that we may have to face,” the statement urged. 

There can be no return to what the ties with Russia were before the war in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday, adding that the war waged by Moscow is a “deep, deep cut in international relations."

The war is “a matter of long-lasting changes that will shape international relations for a very, very long time," Scholz said during a news conference on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany. “In our relations with Russia there can be no going back to the time before the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

Despite uncertainty about how the world would change as a result of the war, the G7 members should “master this change” by “standing together and working together closely and in a spirit of trust," he added. “And that is what unites us: democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the attack at a mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday showed the “depths of cruelty and barbarism” to which Russian President Vladimir Putin would sink to, the UK's PA news agency reported.  

More than 1,000 people were inside the mall when a Russian missile was fired at the building, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Once again our thoughts are with the families of innocent victims in Ukraine. Putin must realize that his behavior will do nothing but strengthen the resolve of the Ukraine and every other G7 country to stand by the Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the British prime minister said.  

Russia has launched more strikes into Ukraine in the past week than the US has seen in recent weeks, according to a senior US defense official. 

The official said that Russia is making gains in the Donbas but is still facing Ukrainian resistance.

In a background call with reporters, the official also said that the US is aware that several Russian generals have been relieved of command and that there are “continued morale concerns with Russian forces.”

In the Kherson region, the US is aware that local officials who have been working with Russia have been assassinated amid Ukrainian resistance, and that the Ukrainians have made modest gains in the northern part of the region.  

The official also said that the Ukrainians are using the HIMARS that were delivered to their country in security assistance packages “very well.”

Dmytro Lunin, the head of the Poltava region military administration, revised the death toll from Monday’s airstrike on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk to 10 dead and 40 injured.

This report comes after Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, said earlier on Monday that two people had died and that 20 people have been wounded — of which nine were in a serious condition — following the airstrike.

Initial reports from President Volodymyr Zelensky suggest that at least 1,000 people may have been in the building when it was struck.

At least four people were killed and 19 were injured in renewed shelling by Russian forces of the area on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukrainian authorities said.

Officials say the death toll and number of injured are expected to rise.

Russian shelling hit the areas of Northern Saltivka and the Nemyshlyany district of Kharkiv, according to the head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

“The occupiers hit yards and streets – there was only civilian infrastructure, only civilians,” Syniehubov said. “I urge everyone to be as careful as possible. Do not go outside unnecessarily."

CNN could not independently verify Ukrainian claims.

The German Financial Stability committee (FSC) saw “no serious disruptions to the functioning of the German financial system” but conditions have "worsened "as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it said in its annual report published Monday.

The report evaluated financial data from April 1, 2021, until March 31, 2022. 

The FSC also warned that risks to financial stability could be elevated in case of “adverse real economic developments“ coinciding with an “abrupt interest rate hike.”  

“Inflation has risen significantly, while the outlook for growth has deteriorated,” the FSC added. 

Upon requests from Ukraine, the European Union will supply the war-torn country with $12 million worth of medical equipment, protective gear, and specialized equipment for public health risks such as chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats, the bloc announced Monday in a statement. 

"As hospitals in Ukraine are in urgent need of medical equipment, the EU is also donating patient monitors, infusion pumps and ventilators, together with protective equipment for the medical staff, like masks and gowns," the EU Commission said in the statement. 

The assistance will be delivered to Ukraine from the EU’s emergency stockpiles hosted by Romania, Hungary, Sweden, Germany, Greece and Denmark, it added. 

For these supplies, the EU has mobilized the “rescEU strategic reserves," according to Janez Lenarcic, EU’s commissioner for crisis management. "Medical equipment, and equipment tailored to chemical, biological or nuclear emergencies are on the way to Ukraine. Hospitals and medical workers in Ukraine are working under fire, and we must do everything in our power to provide them the necessary tools to save lives."