June 27, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said a clear message was sent to Moscow and Minsk that “NATO is there to protect every ally, every inch of NATO territory.”

Stoltenberg made the remarks at a joint news conference at The Hague on Tuesday, alongside the leaders of seven NATO countries.

The NATO chief said the alliance is ready to defend members against Belarus and Russia, and that the events involving the Wagner rebellion were “internal Russian matters.” 

When asked by journalists about any security issues that may come up with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his forces being transferred to Belarus, all officials stated that it is too early to make any final judgments. 

Russian missiles struck the busy city center of the east Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk and a nearby village on Tuesday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, according to Ukrainian officials.

A popular restaurant was badly damaged in the attack and video footage showed a chaotic aftermath, with injured and shocked patrons.

A 17-year-old girl was killed and an 8-month-old baby was among those injured, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement, adding that there may be additional people under the rubble.

At least 47 people were injured, the state emergency service reported late Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “a manifestation of terror.”

Here’s what else you should know:

A view of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on June 15.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains at risk of attack so long as it is controlled by Russia.

He told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday that he thinks Russia is trying to attack the power plant without being blamed for it.

Kuleba also said he believes the threat of nuclear weapons to be “the last argument Putin has in his pocket.”

“I think it’s nothing more than a fear game because Putin loves life too much,” he said, adding that “the West will make a big mistake if it decides to play the nuclear fear game with Putin.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he does not think the Wagner Group will be the same following its failed attempt at a rebellion.

What we do know about next steps. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s exact whereabouts are still unknown. He hasn’t been seen in any videos or photos since he left the Rostov-on-Don military headquarters Saturday evening. However, Belarusian state media quoted Belarus’ President Aleksandr Lukashenko on Tuesday, saying that Prigozhin is in Belarus. And on Tuesday morning, two planes linked to Prigozhin landed at a Belarusian airbase outside the country’s capital city.

Charges against Wagner fighters will be dropped by Russia’s Federal Security Service. Wagner will also hand over its heavy military equipment to active units of the Russian military, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, according to state media RIA Novosti.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks exclusively with CNN's Erin Burnett on June 27, 2023.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the rebellion in Russia led by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin would have hurt Russian troop morale had it lasted longer.

Prigozhin’s attempted rebellion triggered a weekend of chaos for the Russian leadership as his mercenary forces appeared to threaten Moscow. The Wagner boss said he called off the march Saturday to prevent Russian bloodshed and that the uprising was a protest — not an attempt to topple the government. He said the Russian Defense Ministry had planned for Wagner to “cease to exist” from July 1.

A restaurant that was heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in central Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on June 27.

A Russian missile struck a busy area in the center of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday evening, killing at least four people, including a child, and injuring dozens of others, according to authorities.

A second missile hit a village on the outskirts of the city, officials said.

“Russia deliberately targeted crowded areas,” Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said in comments on Telegram. 

The strikes happened at around 7:30 p.m. local time, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration, told Ukrainian state TV. He later said in a Telegram post that the injured included three foreigners and one child.

A 17-year-old girl was among those killed and an 8-month-old baby was among those injured, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

An eyewitness described up to a dozen people being pulled from the rubble. It was not clear if these people were dead or alive, the man told CNN teams on the ground. 

The restaurants on the plaza that was hit are popular with residents and the military, according to CNN teams familiar with the area. RIA Pizza, one of the businesses in the plaza, is especially popular with the military.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said rescuers extinguished a fire in the building of a destroyed restaurant and the search for additional victims was underway as rubble was being cleared.

“The rubble of the destroyed cafe is being dismantled with the help of two cranes and the victims are being searched for,” the State Emergency Services said.

A second strike struck the village of Bilenke, according to Andriy Yermak, adviser to the Office of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

CNN’s Florence Davey-Attlee contributed to the report

Correction: An earlier version of this post gave the incorrect day for the attack on Kramatorsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called a Russian strike on eastern Ukraine’s Kramatorsk “a manifestation of terror.”

At least four people and dozens of others were injured after a Russian missile struck a busy area in the center of Kramatorsk on Tuesday evening. A 17-year-old girl was among those killed and an 8-month-old baby was among those injured, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Zelensky said Russians “brutally shelled Kramatorsk with S-300 missiles.” 

The Ukrainian president also said he is “sincerely grateful” to President Joe Biden for a new defense package. Earlier on Tuesday, the US Department of Defense announced additional security assistance to Ukraine, worth up to $500 million.

Two planes linked to Wagner CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin landed at a Belarusian airbase outside of Minsk on Tuesday morning, according to a satellite image from BlackSky.

Two planes linked to Wagner CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin landed at a Belarusian airbase outside the country’s capital city on Tuesday morning, according to a satellite image from BlackSky. 

Prigozhin’s exact whereabouts are still unknown. He hasn’t been seen in any videos or photos since he left the Rostov-on-Don military headquarters Saturday evening. 

However, Belarusian state media quoted Belarus’ President Aleksandr Lukashenko on Tuesday, saying that Prigozhin is in Belarus.

The satellite image taken Tuesday morning by BlackSky shows the two planes — with serial numbers RA-20795 and RA-02878 – sitting on the tarmac at Machulishchy Airbase, just outside Minsk. Additional satellite imagery from BlackSky, as well as CNN’s analysis of the planes’ measurements, confirmed the planes arrived within the last 24 hours and matched the dimensions of the Prigozhin-linked planes.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 indicated that the planes landed near Minsk at around 8 a.m. local time. Both planes had their transponders turned off before landing, obscuring their exact landing location. 

Two sources – a senior European intelligence official and a source familiar with Prigozhin’s planes – confirmed to CNN the planes are linked to the Wagner boss but did not know if Prigozhin was on board.

The movement of Prigozhin’s planes has been closely watched in the aftermath of his attempted insurrection over the weekend.  

On Sunday afternoon, Prigozhin’s plane, RA-20795, appeared to make a trip to Rostov-on-Don from St. Petersburg. Tracking data from FlightRadar24 doesn’t show the plane landing in the city Prigozhin took control of on Saturday, but it makes a sudden turn toward the city before its transponders are turned off. 

Roughly five hours later, the plane’s transponders were turned back on, and it was seen leaving the Rostov-on-Don area, heading back to St. Petersburg. 

Then, at 1:03 a.m. this morning, the same plane appeared to make the same trek to the Rostov-on-Don area and once again, it turned off its transponders before landing. 

The plane appeared back on radar at 5:32 a.m. local time, appearing to leave the Rostov-on-Don area, and began making a circuitous trek around Ukraine and Southern Russia towards Minsk. The transponders were turned off again at 7:37 a.m. local time as it began descending into the Minsk area.  

The second plane, Ra-02878, flew from one Moscow airport to another on Sunday afternoon: Sheremetyevo International to Zhukovsky International Airport. On Monday, it flew from Moscow to St. Petersburg, landing at 1:26 p.m.

At 6:44 a.m. this morning, that plane left St. Petersburg. The transponders were turned off at 7:55 a.m. local time as it began descending into the Minsk area. 

Wagner troops are still inside Ukraine after the weekend mutiny, according to the US Defense Department.

Ryder added that the US did not make any changes to US force posture in response to the events in Russia.

“[W]e’ve not seen anything that would, from our perspective, require us to make any type of forced posture adjustments,” he said.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu before the meeting with heads of security agencies, on Monday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu delivered his first on-camera remarks since the Wagner rebellion during a meeting with his Cuban counterpart Gen. Alvaro Lopez in Moscow.

Shoigu said Russia-Cuban relationships “are on the rise today” and that Cuba remains an important Russian ally who showed a “full understanding of the reasons for the start of a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.”

According to a statement from the Russian defense ministry, the Cuban defense minister said his country opposed “unilateral anti-Russian sanctions.”

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four companies involved in “gold dealing” and one person they say made “weapons deals” tied to the Wagner Group.

The announcement of the sanctions comes days after the short-lived mutiny led by the head of the mercenary group’s leader, Yevegny Prigozhin.

They target companies in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Central African Republic that “have engaged in illicit gold dealings to fund the Wagner Group to sustain and expand its armed forces, including in Ukraine and Africa.”

The targeted individual, Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov (Ivanov), is a Russian executive in the Wagner Group who “worked closely with Prigozhin’s entity Africa Politology and senior Malian government officials on weapons deals, mining concerns, and other Wagner Group activities in Mali,” according to a Treasury Department release.

Sweden has fulfilled the requirements set out by Turkey in order to join NATO, Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference alongside the UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Billstrom said that with the introduction of a new terrorism law, Sweden has fulfilled the final requirements to join the alliance agreed in a tri-lateral plan between Finland, Sweden and Turkey.

The UK foreign secretary also addressed the journalists in the room, reiterating the UK’s support for Sweden’s NATO inclusion. “My position is clear that Sweden must and shall join NATO and should do so as soon as possible,” Cleverly said. 

“We will continue to push for the speedy completion of your accession process,” Cleverly added. 

The UK foreign minister also stressed that it was in Turkey’s interest “that Sweden becomes a member of the alliance and does so quickly.”

Sweden stated its intent to join NATO through its open-door policy in May last year, just weeks after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. 

Antony Blinken attends the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, on June 21.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a $500 million security assistance package for Ukraine Tuesday.

According to a statement, the package includes:

“The enduring courage and solidarity of the people of Ukraine continues to inspire the world. Russia started this unprovoked war against Ukraine,” Blinken said in his statement.

Blinken went on to reaffirm US commitment to Ukraine.

“Russia could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks against Ukraine’s cities and people. Until Russia does so, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine, for as long as it takes,” he said.

Almost 900 Ukrainian civilians have been detained by Russia — with 77 executed — in the first 10 months of the war in Ukraine, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday.  

Russian forces “engaged in widespread torture and ill-treatment of civilian detainees” and, in some cases “subjected (them) to sexual violence,” the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said in a statement.  

The report covers 15 months of the war, from February 2022 to May 2023.

Civilians who were detained included local public officials, humanitarian volunteers, priests and teachers.  

“Many civilian detainees were held incommunicado, in unofficial places of detention, often in deplorable conditions. In about a quarter of the documented cases, civilian detainees were transferred to other locations within occupied territory or deported to the Russian Federation. Often, no information was disclosed to their families for prolonged periods of time,” according to the report.  

The UN also found evidence of civilian detentions by Ukraine, reporting a total of 75 arrests, mostly of people suspected of “conflict-related” offenses. Over half of those arbitrarily detained by Ukrainian forces also reported being tortured or mistreated, usually while they were being interrogated or immediately after arrest, Bogner said.  

According to Bogner, Ukraine offered “unimpeded confidential access to official places of detention and detainees” with the exception of a group of 87 Russian sailors, while Russia did not grant similar access, despite the UN’s requests.

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus Tuesday, according to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

In an address, Lukashenko said he cautioned Prigozhin that his forces would be destroyed if they continued their march to the Russian capital. “Halfway you’ll just be crushed like a bug,” Lukashenko recalls telling Prigozhin during a call on Saturday, according to Belarusian state media. 

Lukashenko also provided new details about the conversations he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prigozhin over the weekend, saying that negotiations with the Wagner boss occurred all day Saturday.

The Belarusian president claimed the country is not currently building camps on its territory for Wagner mercenary forces, and that he’d offered the group some abandoned land inside Belarus if they needed it.

Earlier, Putin told Russian security personnel that they “virtually stopped a civil war” in responding to Wagner forces’ failed insurrection, in strong remarks following Russia’s weekend of chaos.

Here are other key developments related to the Wagner rebellion:

Wagner fighters prepare to pull out from the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don to return to their base on Saturday, June 24.

For two days after Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his abortive mutiny, Russian President Vladimir Putin said nothing in public. Having faced the greatest challenge to his authority in 23 years, and almost witnessed his country tip into civil war, many expected the president to respond with sound and fury.

Instead, the silence was broken first by his adversary. In an 11-minute audio message posted to his Telegram channel, Prigozhin claimed to have merely staged a protest, rather than a coup, attempting to “bring to justice” Russia’s top military brass for their “mistakes during the special military operation.”

When Putin finally addressed the nation again on Monday, he was remarkably clement. The last time he had been seen on Saturday, he told the nation that Prigozhin’s mutiny was “a stab in the back of our country and our people,” and promised to hold the insurgents “accountable.”

But, according to Kirill Shamiev, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Putin’s first priority will be to “demilitarize, disarm and demobilize the Wagner group,” before issuing any potential punishment.

“On the tactical level, it’s important to pacify a bit, to make it calm, to give some hope and benefits to the ordinary Wagner mercenaries and senior command, to reduce their incentives to act,” Shamiev told CNN.

Read the full story here.

CNN’s Katherina Krebs, Anna Chernova and Jessie Yeung contributed reporting.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN that while Ukraine did not have any specific intelligence related to Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s attempted rebellion over the weekend, it was inevitable that someone would challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“For us, it has always been pretty obvious that it’s just a matter of time when someone in Russia will dare to challenge Putin. Because we saw how his power and authority is shrinking, and how Russia is entering very difficult turbulence. So Prigozhin is just the first one who dared, but I have no doubt that others will follow one way or another,” Kuleba told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Kuleba also said Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling is the last weapon in his arsenal.

“Frankly, I believe that the fear of nuclear weapons is the last argument Putin has in his book. … He exhausted all other arguments,” he told Burnett.

“The West will make a big mistake if it decides to play the nuclear fear game with Putin,” he added.

The foreign minister also expressed concern over the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying “the risk is real” as long as Russian troops hold the facility.

“Of course, they don’t want to be blamed for causing another nuclear disaster. So I think they’re struggling to find a way to perform it as a false-flag operation or as something else that would not be directly attributable to them,” he claimed.

Last week, the Kremlin denied a claim made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia was “considering” a “terrorist attack” at the plant in occupied southern Ukraine.

Watch the full interview on CNN at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, right, attend the Russia-Belarus Union State Supreme Council at Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, on April 6.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said most of the tactical nuclear weapons that Russia plans to station in Belarus have already arrived. 

“In terms of nuclear weapons, most of them were already brought to Belarus, I won’t say how many. It’s surprising that they didn’t trace it,” Lukashenko said according to Belarus state media.

He denied that Wagner forces are being used to guard the weapons, saying: “Russians and Belarusians are guarding it… No Wagner fighters will guard nuclear weapons. This is our task.” 

Earlier Tuesday, Lukashenko claimed that Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had arrived to Belarus.

More on the transfer of weapons: Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. Putin said Moscow would complete the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in the neighboring country by the beginning of July. He added that Russia had already transferred an Iskander short-range missile system, a device that can be fitted with nuclear or conventional warheads, to Belarus.

Prior to the nuclear deal, Belarus had no nuclear weapons on its territory since the early 1990s. Shortly after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it agreed to transfer all Soviet-era weapons of mass destruction stationed there to Russia.

Since invading Ukraine more than a year ago, Putin has used escalating rhetoric on a number of occasions, warning of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war and suggesting Moscow may abandon its “no first use” policy.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration is closely monitoring the situation between Russia and Belarus after Putin had claimedMoscow had deployed tactical nuclear weapons to the neighboring country. He said the US has “no reason to adjust” its nuclear posture and doesn’t “see any indications” that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.

CNN’s Mariya Knight, Uliana Pavlova, Helen Regan and Mike Conte contributed reporting to this post.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he cautioned Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin that his forces would be destroyed if they continued their march to the Russian capital.

“Halfway you’ll just be crushed like a bug,” Lukashenko recalls telling Prigozhin during a call on Saturday, according to Belarusian state media. 

Lukashenko said Prigozhin told him: “‘We want justice! They want to strangle us! We will go to Moscow!’”

“For a long time, I was trying to convince him. And in the end I said, ‘You know, you can do whatever you want. But don’t be offended by me. Our brigade is ready for transfer to Moscow,’ he said.”

Lukashenko said he told Prigozhin that “this situation does not only concern Russia. It’s not just because this is our Fatherland and because, God forbid, this turmoil would spread all over Russia, and the prerequisites for this were colossal, we were next.”

Lukashenko denies building camps for Wagner forces: The president said Belarus is not currently building camps on its territory for Wagner mercenary forces, following Saturday’s rebellion.

“We are not building any camps yet. But if they want, we will accommodate them. Set up tents, please. But for now they are in Luhansk in their camps,” the Belarussian president said in an address on Tuesday.

He said Wagner had been offered some abandoned land inside Belarus if they needed it.