Kyiv — Video has emerged that appears to refute Russian propaganda suggesting that a missile strike on a shopping mall in Ukraine never happened. At least 18 people died and about 60 were wounded in the Monday strike, according to Ukrainian officials, but Russia claims it only hit a legitimate military target near the mall.

Video from security cameras in the area clearly caught the moment when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a Russian X-22 cruise missile slammed into the shopping center in the central city of Kremenchuk. A shockwave ripples across the area just before people in a park are seen falling to the ground and fleeing for cover. 

Emergency workers were still searching through the wreckage of the shopping center on Wednesday, with about 20 people still listed as missing.

Zelenskyy shared another video that he said showed the X-22 rocket — a long-range cruise missile designed in the former Soviet Union to sink American aircraft carriers — flying at an angle into the mall, sending a huge fireball and debris flying in all directions. The Ukrainian leader pleaded on Tuesday for the United Nations to “act immediately” to “hold Russia accountable” for what he has described as a terrorist attack on his country.

In his post sharing the video, Zelenskyy accused Russia of hitting the mall “purposefully.”

“They wanted to kill as many people as possible in a peaceful city, in a regular shopping mall,” he said.  

The security camera videos appear to debunk Russian propaganda spread online suggesting the attack was faked and that the Russian military only hit a military facility near the shopping center. Various Russian accounts have suggested the site targeted was a depot stocked with Western-supplied weapons or a base for Ukrainian military vehicles.

CBS News visited the facility just north of the mall, however, and found an asphalt factory. We met Mykola Danyleiko, chairman of the board for the Kredmash Road Machinery Plant, which mixes asphalt to pave roads.

“It’s fake,” he told CBS News of the Russian claims. “They said we send products from here by railroad. Do you see a railroad?” 

The cement plant was hit by a missile on Monday, too, but there was no railway there.

Smoke rises from a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, June 27, 2022. Telegram/V_Zelenskiy_official/Handout/REUTERS

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed fire spread from its strike on the plant to the mall, causing the shopping center to burn down. But our team saw no burn path after walking the third of a mile between the two locations.

Russian media also said the mall was “non-operating” at the time of the strike, but recent online videos suggest otherwise.

And fear can’t be faked: As we began interviewing a local woman near the mall a day after the strike, an air raid alert started beeping on her phone, and she bolted.

She was clearly afraid of another Russian missile strike — which Moscow might again insist never happened.

CBS News producer Barny Smith contributed to this report.

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First published on June 29, 2022 / 9:29 AM

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A man examines pictures over the debris after shelling at a residential area in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine. Photograph: George Ivanchenko/EPA

A man stands by a window inside his damaged apartment after shelling at a residential area in Mykolaiv. Photograph: George Ivanchenko/EPA

Syria has said it officially recognised the independence and sovereignty of the Russian controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Reuters reports that the Syrian presidency had affirmed its intention to build relations with the two self-proclaimed republics in February, and that today the move was confirmed by state news agency SANA, citing a foreign ministry source.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic were formed in April 2014. Until now, the only UN member state to recognise their legitimacy had been Russia. South Ossetia, itself a breakaway region recognised by most international states as part of Georgia, has also previously offered them recognition.

Point 41 of the new 2022 Nato strategic concept document directly addresses the possibility of Ukraine joining the alliance in the future. The document reads:

The security of countries aspiring to become members of the Alliance is intertwined with our own. We strongly support their independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. We will strengthen political dialogue and cooperation with those who aim to join the Alliance, help strengthen their resilience against malign interference, build their capabilities, and enhance our practical support to advance their EuroAtlantic aspirations. We will continue to develop our partnerships with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Ukraine to advance our common interest in Euro-Atlantic peace, stability and security. We reaffirm the decision we took at the 2008 Bucharest Summit and all subsequent decisions with respect to Georgia and Ukraine.

Nato has published its new strategic concept in full on its website. The introduction lays out how starkly Nato portrays the threat of Russia, saying:

The Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine has shattered peace and gravely altered our security environment. Its brutal and unlawful invasion, repeated violations of international humanitarian law and heinous attacks and atrocities have caused unspeakable suffering and destruction. A strong, independent Ukraine is vital for the stability of the Euro-Atlantic area. Moscow’s behaviour reflects a pattern of Russian aggressive actions against its neighbours and the wider transatlantic community.

The introduction concludes:

Our vision is clear: we want to live in a world where sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights and international law are respected and where each country can choose its own path, free from aggression, coercion or subversion. We work with all who share these goals. We stand together, as Allies, to defend our freedom and contribute to a more peaceful world.

Download: Nato 2022 strategic concept PDF

The Jens Stoltenberg Nato press conference in Madrid has finished, but while that has been happening, also speaking has been Maria Zakharova, press secretary of Russia’s foreign ministry. She has said that Russia does not rule out seizing western assets within its borders.

Reuters quotes her saying Russia was prepared to “act accordingly” if the west decided to use Russia’s frozen state assets – chief among them being around $300bn of central bank foreign currency reserves.

Zakharova, dismissed as a “comedy turn” by the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, earlier today, said the use of such funds “will be interpreted by us as an unlawful and defiantly unfriendly attack, giving us the right to take retaliatory actions to protect our interests”.

“We should not forget about the foreign assets of western countries, businesses and citizens who are located on the territory of our country,” she said.

If the west failed to adhere to the principles of democracy, an open economy, private property and judicial independence, then “we will recognise this and act accordingly”, Zakharova added.

A Ukrainian journalist at the Nato press conference asked Jens Stoltenberg what the reaction was like from the leaders in the room when Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the meeting. Stoltenberg said “the message from the leaders in the meeting room was a very strong special support.”

He went on to say:

Not only a special support, but actually they announced additional systems, weapons, equipment, that our Nato allies are now delivering to Ukraine. It is a message in words and deeds.

I think also it is very clear that allies are prepared for a long war. Wars are unpredictable, but we have to be prepared for the long haul. And that was the clear message to all of us in the room for President Zelenskiy.

And our answer was, yes, we are prepared because they are fighting for their independence, but they’re also fighting for values which are important for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every nation.

And therefore, this matters for our security.

Our focus now is to support Ukraine. This war will, as most other wars do at some stage, end at the negotiating table.

But it is important that Ukraine is able to get an agreement on their terms, which is acceptable for Ukraine. And therefore we know that there is a very close link between what they can achieve around the negotiating table, and their strength on the battlefield.

And therefore our focus now is to support them on the battlefield with many different types of lethal or non-lethal support. That is the focus.

The journalist had also asked what chance Stoltenberg thought there might be after the war for a quick accession to Nato for Ukraine, in a similar manner to the one offered to Finland and Sweden. The secretary general said “Nato’s door remains open” and cited the alliance’s declaration in Bucharest in 2014 that Ukraine was welcome to apply.

Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, is taking questions from the media at the press conference now. The first question was whether Nato would be placing permanent bases in Sweden and Finland once their membership of the alliance was ratified. He said:

First of all, the decision to invite Finland and Sweden to become members demonstrate that Nato’s door is open. It demonstrates that President Putin did not succeed in closing Nato’s door. Nato’s door remains open.

And it also demonstrates that we respect the sovereign right of every nation to choose its own path. So we of course, respect that Finland and Sweden when they decided to stay out of Nato for many, many years, but then we also welcome them and respect the decision to join Nato.

Stoltenberg then emphasised that the plan would be to pre-position more equipment further forward closers to Nato’s borders. He said:

We know that actually to move, people can go quite fast. But to move heavy equipment, battle tanks, ammunition, fuel, all kinds of supplies, that takes time. So if we have that pre-positioned in place, then you can move in very quickly with the personnel.

He said that “what we will make sure with our presence is that we are able to defend all allies, including of course, Finland, and Sweden”.

Nato’s new strategic concept, Jens Stoltenberg has explained in Madrid, also looks at the environmental impact of the defence alliance. He said: “We cannot choose between having green militaries or strong militaries. They must be both. So we must maintain our operational effectiveness and readiness as we continue to adapt.”

He described the climate crisis as “the defining challenge of our time” and said that “Nato is committed to playing our part in mitigating the impact on our security.”.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 2022 Strategic Concept pledged to continue developing its partnership with Georgia and reaffirmed its 2008 Bucharest Summit decision that the country will eventually become a member of the Alliance.

“We will continue to develop our partnerships with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Ukraine to advance our common interest in Euro-Atlantic peace, stability and security,” reads the concept.

The document emphasized that “the security of countries aspiring to become members of the Alliance is intertwined with our own. We strongly support their independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“We will strengthen political dialogue and cooperation with those who aim to join the Alliance, help strengthen their resilience against malign interference, build their capabilities, and enhance our practical support to advance their Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” it added.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the concept, adopted at June 29-30 Madrid Summit, is “the blueprint for the Alliance in a more dangerous and competitive world.”

Russia “Most Significant Threat”

In the Strategic Concept, NATO Allies underlined that “the Russian Federation is the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.” They said Moscow “seeks to establish spheres of influence and direct control through coercion, subversion, aggression and annexation. It uses conventional, cyber and hybrid means against us and our partners.”

The Strategic Concept also asserted that “Moscow’s military build-up, including in the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean Sea regions, along with its military integration with Belarus, challenge our security and interests.”

NATO also noted that “the Western Balkans and the Black Sea region are of strategic importance for the
Alliance. We will continue to support the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of interested countries in these regions.” “We will enhance efforts to bolster their capabilities to address the distinct threats and challenges they face and boost their resilience against malign third-party interference and coercion.”

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• PM Attends NATO Madrid Summit

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MADRID (AP) — NATO declared Russia the “most significant and direct threat” to its members’ peace and security, as the military alliance met Wednesday to confront what NATO’s chief called the biggest security crisis since World War II.

It also promised to “step up political and practical support” to Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s invasion.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chided NATO for not embracing his embattled country more fully and asked for more weapons to defeat Moscow’s forces.

Russia’s invasion of its neighbor shattered Europe’s peace, drove NATO to pour troops and weapons into eastern Europe on a scale not seen since the Cold War, and was set to give the defense organization two new members in Sweden and Finland.

“President (Vladimir) Putin’s war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and has created the greatest security crisis in Europe since the Second World War,” said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

The alliance promised to more support for Ukraine, which has already received billions in military and civilian aid from NATO countries. But Zelenskyy lamented that NATO’s open-door policy to new members did not appear to apply to his country.

“The open-door policy of NATO shouldn’t resemble the old turnstiles on Kyiv’s subway, which stay open but close when you approach them until you pay,” Zelenskyy said by video link to the leaders of the 30 NATO nations meeting in Madrid. “Hasn’t Ukraine paid enough?”

READ MORE: What European Union membership would mean for war-torn Ukraine

He asked for more modern artillery systems and other weapons and warned the leaders that they either had to provide Ukraine with the help it needed to defeat Russia or “face a delayed war between Russia and yourself.”

“The question is who’s next? Moldova? Or the Baltics? Or Poland? The answer is: all of them,” he said. “We are deterring Russia to prevent it from destroying us and from destroying you.”

Zelenskyy has acknowledged that NATO membership is a distant prospect. The alliance is trying to strike a delicate balance, letting its member-nations arm Ukraine without sparking a direct confrontation between NATO and nuclear-armed Russia.

Under NATO treaties, an attack on any member would be considered an attack on all and trigger a military response by the entire alliance.

U.S. President Joe Biden, whose country provides the bulk of NATO’s military power, vowed the Madrid summit would send “an unmistakable message … that NATO is strong and united.”

“We’re stepping up. We’re proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been,” said Biden. He announced a hefty boost in America’s military presence in Europe, including a permanent U.S. base in Poland, two more Navy destroyers based in Rota, Spain, and two more F35 squadrons to the U.K.

Still, strains among NATO allies have also emerged as the cost of energy and other essential goods has skyrocketed, partly because of the the war and tough Western sanctions on Russia. There also are tensions over how the war will end and what, if any, concessions Ukraine should make to stop the fighting.

Money could also be a sensitive issue — just nine of NATO’s 30 members currently meet the organization’s target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country does hit the target, urged NATO allies “to dig deep to restore deterrence and ensure defense in the decade ahead.”

The war has already triggered a big increase in NATO’s forces in eastern Europe, and allies are expected to agree at the summit to boost the strength of the alliance’s rapid reaction force nearly eightfold, from 40,000 to 300,000 troops, by next year. The troops will be based in their home nations but dedicated to specific countries on NATO’s eastern flank, where the alliance plans to build up stocks of equipment and ammunition.

READ MORE: Russian long-range missiles destroy western Ukraine arms depot

Stoltenberg said it was part of the “the biggest overhaul of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.”

The leaders are also set to publish NATO’s new Strategic Concept, its once-a-decade set of priorities and goals.

The last such document, in 2010, called Russia a “strategic partner.” Now, the alliance is set to declare Moscow its No. 1 threat. The document will also set out NATO’s approach on issues from cybersecurity to climate change — and the growing economic and military reach of China.

For the first time, the leaders of Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand are attending the summit as guests, a reflection of the growing importance of Asia and the Pacific region.

Stoltenberg said China was not NATO’s adversary, but posed “challenges to our values, to our interest and to our security.”

Biden was due to hold a rare meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on the sidelines of the summit, focused on North Korea’s nuclear program.

The summit opened with one problem solved, after Turkey agreed Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. In response to the invasion, the two Nordic nations abandoned their long-held nonaligned status and applied to join NATO as protection against an increasingly aggressive and unpredictable Russia — which shares a long border with Finland.

NATO operates by consensus, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to block the Nordic pair, insisting they change their stance on Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists.

After urgent top-level talks with leaders of the three countries, Stoltenberg said the impasse had been cleared.

Turkey hailed Tuesday’s agreement as a triumph, saying the Nordic nations had agreed to crack down on groups that Ankara deems national security threats, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is also considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the EU, and its Syrian extension. It said they also agreed “not to impose embargo restrictions in the field of defense industry” on Turkey and to take “concrete steps on the extradition of terrorist criminals.”

Stoltenberg said leaders of the 30-nation alliance will issue a formal invitation Wednesday to the two countries. The decision has to be ratified by all individual nations, but he said he was “absolutely confident” Finland and Sweden would become members.

Stoltenberg said he expected the process to be finished “rather quickly,” but did not set a time on it.

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Madrid contributed.

Lithuania’s defense chief said the Baltic nation has come under an unprecedented cyber attack this week after the government announced it would start blocking the transit of sanctioned goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

“This cyber war has been ongoing non-stop for many years,” Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas told LRT radio on Tuesday. “But this scale and intensity, which is perhaps not yet the highest but medium, is taking place for the first time.” 

President Biden led his Group of 7 counterparts to agree on a plan that would cap the price of Russian oil, a daunting goal that risks the Kremlin restricting supply even further.

During this week’s meeting of the Group of 7 nations in Germany, President Biden agreed with fellow leaders to seek temporary caps on the price of Russian oil.Credit…Kenny Holston for The New York Times

ELMAU, Germany (AP) — President Joe Biden and Western allies opened a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday intent on keeping economic fallout from the war in Ukraine from fracturing the global coalition working to punish Russia’s aggression. Britain’s Boris Johnson warned the leaders not to give in to “fatigue” even as Russia lobbed new missiles at Kyiv.

The Group of Seven leaders were set to announce new bans on imports of Russian gold, the latest in a series of sanctions the club of democracies hopes will further isolate Russia economically. They also were looking at possible price caps on energy meant to limit Russian oil and gas profits that Moscow can pump into its war effort.

And following up on a proposal from last year’s G-7 summit, Biden formally launched a global infrastructure partnership designed to counter China’s influence in the developing world. The initiative aims to leverage $600 billion with fellow G-7 countries by 2027 for global infrastructure projects. Some $200 billion would come from the United States, Biden said.

U.S. officials have long argued that China’s infrastructure initiative traps receiving countries in debt and that the investments benefit China more than their hosts.

In a pre-summit show of force, Russia launched its first missile strikes against the Ukrainian capital in three weeks, striking at least two residential buildings, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Biden condemned Russia’s actions as “more of their barbarism,” and stressed that allies need to remain firm even as the economic reverberations from the war take a toll around the globe in inflation, food shortages and more.

“We have to stay together, because Putin has been counting on, from the beginning, that somehow NATO and the G-7 would splinter, but we haven’t and we’re not going to,” Biden said during a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who holds the G-7′s rotating presidency and is hosting the gathering.

As the G-7 leaders sat down for their opening session, they took a light-hearted jab at Putin. Johnson could be heard asking whether he should keep his jacket on, adding, “We all have to show that we’re tougher than Putin.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chimed in: “A bare-chested horseback ride.”

Over the years, the Kremlin has released several photos of the Russian leader in which he appears shirtless.

Biden and his counterparts were using the gathering to discuss how to secure energy supplies and tackle inflation triggered by the war’s fallout.

The leaders also came together on the new global infrastructure partnership meant to provide an alternative to Russian and Chinese investment in the developing world. One by one, the leaders stepped up to the microphone to discuss the partnership and their roles in it — without mentioning China by name.

Ukraine cast a shadow over the gathering, but the leaders were determined to project resolve.

Scholz told Biden that the allies all managed “to stay united, which obviously Putin never expected.”

Biden said of Putin’s war: “We can’t let this aggression take the form it has and get away with it.”

Scholz, who has faced criticism at home and abroad for perceived reluctance to send Ukraine heavy weapons, said, “Germany and the U.S. will always act together when it comes to questions of Ukraine’s security.”

Johnson, for his part, urged fellow leaders not to give in to “fatigue.” He has expressed concern that divisions may emerge in the pro-Ukraine alliance as the four-month-old war grinds on.

Asked whether he thought France and Germany were doing enough, Johnson praised the “huge strides” made by Germany to arm Ukraine and cut imports of Russian gas. He did not mention France.

Biden and Scholz, in their pre-summit meeting, agreed on the need for a negotiated end to the Ukraine war, but did not get into specifics on how to achieve it, said a senior Biden administration official, who requested anonymity to reveal details of a private conversation.

However, they did not have an extensive discussion about oil price caps or inflation, the official said.

Other leaders echoed Biden’s praise of coalition unity.

The head of the European Union’s council of governments said the 27-member bloc maintains “unwavering unity” in backing Ukraine against Russia’s invasion with money and political support, but that “Ukraine needs more and we are committed to providing more.”

European Council President Charles Michel said EU governments were ready to supply “more military support, more financial means, and more political support” to enable Ukraine to defend itself and “curb Russia’s ability to wage war.”

The EU has imposed six rounds of sanctions against Russia, the latest one being a ban on 90% of Russian crude oil imports by the end of the year. The measure is aimed at a pillar of the Kremlin’s finances, its oil and gas revenues.

Biden and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, plus the EU, spent Sunday in both formal and informal settings discussing the war’s effects on the global economy, including inflation.

Biden said G-7 nations, including the United States, will ban imports of gold from Russia. A formal announcement was expected Tuesday as the leaders wind up their annual summit.

Johnson said the ban will “directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine.”

“Putin is squandering his dwindling resources on this pointless and barbaric war. He is bankrolling his ego at the expense of both the Ukrainian and Russian people,” Johnson said. “We need to starve the Putin regime of its funding.”

Gold, in recent years, has been the top Russian export after energy — reaching almost $19 billion or about 5% of global gold exports, in 2020, according to the White House.

Of Russian gold exports, 90% was consigned to G-7 countries. More than 90% of those exports, or nearly $17 billion, was exported to the U.K. The United States imported less than $200 million in gold from Russia in 2019, and under $1 million in 2020 and 2021.

As for the idea of price caps on energy, Michel said, “we want to go into the details, we want to fine-tune … to make sure we have a clear common understanding of what are the direct effects and what could be the collateral consequences” if such a step were to be taken by the group.

___

Superville reported from Telfs, Austria and Moulson from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.