Nato set to welcome Nordic duo into bloc

More Russian missiles smash into host of Ukrainian cities

Madrid, June 29: The United States will reinforce Europe’s defences with a wave of new military deployments, President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday, as more Russian missiles smashed into Ukrainian cities.

News of the US plan came as Nato leaders met to welcome Sweden and Finland as candidates to join the alliance, a double blow to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his bid to redraw Europe’s security map.

Biden boasted that the US announcement was exactly what Putin “didn’t want” and Moscow reacted with predictable fury, denouncing Sweden and Finland’s entry plan as “destabilising” and accusing an “aggressive” Nato of seeking to contain Russia.

As Western leaders met in Madrid, in Ukraine officials complained that Russian missiles had hit civilian housing and businesses in and around the cities of Dnipro, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv, leaving at least seven dead and 14 wounded.

In Kremenchuk, the town where a Russian missile on Monday destroyed a shopping centre and — according to local officials — killed at least 18 civilians, clearing operations continued.

A giant crane was working near the near the site of the impact and in the rubble-strewn parking area shopping trolleys piled with clothes and household goods lay abandoned.

Western leaders have dubbed the Kremenchuk strike a war crime, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that UN investigators visit. Russia said it targeted a Ukrainian depot storing Western arms.

The Russian defence ministry said it had inflicted severe casualties on Ukrainian troops defending the town of Lysychansk, in the eastern Donbas region, and said the Kharkiv attack had hit Ukrainian command centres and a training base for foreign “mercenaries”.

Moscow’s February 24 invasion of pro-Western Ukraine triggered massive economic sanctions and a wave of support for Zelenskyy's government, including deliveries of advanced weapons.