June 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failure to “master” the situation both in Russia and on the battlefield in Ukraine is causing concern in neighboring Georgia. 

The president, who is politically independent of the country’s ruling Georgian Dream party, admitted that she felt “total surprise” when she became aware of the attempted rebellion by the Wagner Group last weekend.  

The president said she does not see an imminent military threat to Georgia, remarking that Putin lacks the “resources” to open a front along the Georgian border. 

Last week, Zourabichvili said Georgia was closely monitoring the short-lived rebellion by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, stressing in a tweet that the Georgian border needs to be “tightly controlled in view of possible new waves of migration.” 

Zourabichvili reiterated this message on Wednesday, emphasizing that Georgia “cannot just let whatever amount of Russians come to the territory of Georgia without knowing who they are.” 

Acknowledging that although the “vast majority” of Russians fleeing to Georgia are anti-Putin, she said there is a fear that Russia may try and intervene under the excuse that Russian-speaking people are not being “protected correctly” in Georgia. 

The president outlined her belief that Georgia still has a “great chance” to enter both the European Union and NATO as part of efforts to safeguard its future.

Russian authorities confirmed the crews of two Russian aircraft were killed during Wagner’s armed rebellion on Saturday.

Gov. Stanislav Voskresensky of Russia’s Ivanovo region expressed condolences to the family and friends of the Il-22 aircraft crew killed on June 24 while performing military duty in the region, the press service of the regional government told state media outlet TASS on Wednesday.

Pskov regional Gov. Mikhail Vedernikov, in a video message posted on his Telegram channel on Tuesday, confirmed the crew of the Ka-52 aircraft was killed during the rebellion.

On Sunday, social media images emerged of wreckage from two military aircraft in a rural area of southern Russia following an armed rebellion.

CNN's Tim Lister contributed reporting.

Colombian parliament member and former High Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo, writer Hector Abad and journalist Catalina Gomez were injured during Tuesday's missile attack in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to a statement by Colombia’s high commissioner for peace.

The three Colombians suffered minor injuries, according to a statement released by the Aguanta Ucrania campaign, which was founded by Jaramillo. Aguanta Ucrania, which means "Ukraine resist" in English, is a campaign to promote Latin American solidarity with Ukrainians during the Russian invasion, according to the organization.

The Colombians were having dinner with Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina at a pizzeria when it was struck, according to the statement signed by Jaramillo and Abad. Amelina is in critical condition as a result of a skull injury, according to the organization.

At least 11 people were killed and dozens injured in the attack, according to Ukrainian officials. 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the strike.

"Russia has attacked three defenseless Colombian civilians. It has violated the protocols of war," the president said on Twitter. Colombia’s foreign ministry must deliver a diplomatic note of protest, Petro added. 

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon in Bogota contributed reporting to this post.

The State Department said the United States "unequivocally condemns" the Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday. 

"While others are focused on pursuing a way to end this war, Russia is again undertaking strikes, sending drones and missiles into residential areas of a neighboring country," Patel said.

Ukrainian officials said 11 people died as a result of a Russian missile strike Tuesday in the city center of Kramatorsk.

The Ukrainian Security Service said it detained a man who allegedly scouted a Kramatorsk pizzeria and sent a video of the site to the Russian Armed Forces prior to the strike Tuesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it hit a temporary command post of the Ukrainian army unit in the strike. 

At least 14 servicemen from the Pskov region in Russia were killed in early June during an incursion that happened in the Belgorod region, said Pskov Gov. Mikhail Vedernikov in a video message posted on his Telegram on Wednesday.

According to Vedernikov, at least 10 Pskov military personnel were also captured during the incursion.

"They were shown by Ukrainian propaganda and its accomplices from among the treacherous armed formations. At the same time, a resonant video appeared with a proposal to the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov about an exchange on neutral territory. As we now know, there is no fair exchange with militants from pseudo-Russian terrorist organizations. It was a banal trap. We did everything possible to speed up negotiations on the exchange of our prisoners," he added.

According to the Pskov governor, three Russian servicemen have already been exchanged. 

Some more context: The region of Belgorod has seen a growing incidence of cross-border fire, in both directions, as well as incursions from Ukraine by groups calling themselves anti-Putin Russian partisans.

The Wagner rebellion in Russian shocked the world. The oil market reacted with a collective yawn.

Oil prices are, incredibly, lower today than they were before the short-lived uprising in Russia — one of the world’s most important players in the oil market.

The message from the oil market is that the crisis is over. Oil flows from Russia won’t be derailed and the test to Vladimir Putin’s grip on power won’t overshadow investors’ more immediate worry in the US: The economic fallout from Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve’s war on inflation.

The shift in focus away from Russia is a 180 from last year, when investors arguably overreacted to the mere threat of disruptions to Russian oil from the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions. Oil prices skyrocketed to the highest levels since 2008, only to crash when those threats failed to materialize.

“Now it’s a show-me market as opposed to a tell-me market. Nobody is willing to price in disruption — until it occurs,” said Croft.

US oil prices retreated to around $68.50 a barrel on Wednesday, down from $69.51 a barrel on Thursday before Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his rebellion.

Some oil market veterans wonder if the pendulum has now swung too far in the other direction. Are investors too complacent about the situation in Russia, even as new details emerge about the extent of the uprising?

Read more about this here.

Russian missiles struck the busy center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk and a nearby village on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens, Ukrainian officials said.

Read up on the latest on the strike and other top headlines:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a small group of Wagner fighters present in Eastern Ukraine are not posing a threat. 

Zelensky said he believes the Wagner fighters who are located on the territory of Belarus do not pose a threat either, because he thinks “their troops would not be numerous”. 

Zelensky said according to reports from his commanders, the situation in the north of Ukraine “has not changed and is under control, regardless of the presence of the Wagnerites in Belarus.” 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday that the Wagner Group had been offered the use of some of the country's abandoned land following its short-lived rebellion but denied building camps on Belarusian territory for the mercenary group.

“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 eastern Ukraine) in their camps,” Lukashenko said.

Zelensky on NATO membership: The Ukrainian president also said he understands his country cannot become a NATO member while the war is ongoing, but he needs to be sure the situation will change after the war is over. He said he would like to get an indication of this at a future NATO summit. The next summit will be next month in Vilnius, Lithuania.

“We need to be sure that after the war, we will become a member. [...] And we would like [to get] a third signal at the NATO summit that Ukraine will receive security guarantees. Not instead of NATO membership, but for the period when we are not yet in the alliance. This is very important," Zelensky said.