June 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is “on shaky ground” following the weekend rebellion by the Wagner Group, according to GOP presidential candidate and former US Ambassador to United Nations Nikki Haley.

“Putin’s on nervous ground right now. Nervous because his military leaders knew this was coming and they didn't tell him, nervous because he's got to figure out who's with him and who's not, nervous because when the Wagner Group went and started marching toward Moscow, nobody stopped them,” Haley said Wednesday at an event in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“So I think he's on shaky ground,” the former South Carolina governor said of the Russian leader. “I wish the allies would just really circle the wagons and finish this because Ukraine is making some great progress.”

Speaking of the Wagner Group, Haley said: “But what happens when you create a monster, and the monster comes back after you? Putin found out this weekend.”

She added that the Russian people “have lost so many of their sons, so many of their husbands that Putin now realizes he's in trouble.”

Ukrainian shelling killed at least two people and wounded seven others in the eastern city of Donetsk, the Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said in a Telegram post on Wednesday.

Five teenage girls are among those injured, according to Kulemzin, and several apartment buildings were damaged

Between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the Ukrainian military shelled Donetsk city 16 times, the mayor said citing the Joint Center for Command and Control of the DPR.

CNN cannot verify the mayor's claims about the Ukrainian shelling.

The Kremlin has gone to great lengths to reassert President Vladimir Putin’s authority, with meetings and events designed to show the unity and solidarity of the state and the military under his leadership following the Wagner Group rebellion over the weekend.

The Russian leader visited the Dagestan region and was met by excited supporters in the streets of the city of Derbent, according to video posted by the Kremlin. 

Putin said he “did not doubt” the support of Russian citizens during the short-lived mutiny, according to a Kremlin readout.

Here's what else you should know to get up to speed:

• International reaction: US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz both said separately Wednesday that Putin had been weakened by the Wagner rebellion. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili told CNN Putin’s failure to “master” the situation both in Russia and on the battlefield in Ukraine is causing concern in the neighboring state.
• Kremlin pushes back on NYT report: The Kremlin has dismissed a report in the New York Times about a Russian general allegedly knowing in advance about Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans to attempt a mutiny, calling the story “speculation and rumors.” The Times reported that US officials are trying to learn if Gen. Sergey Surovikin, the former top Russian commander in Ukraine, helped to plan Prigozhin’s armed rebellion.
• US assistance to Warsaw: The Biden administration on Wednesday approved a potential $15 billion sale of an Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System to Poland. Congress was notified of the possible sale on Wednesday, according to a notice from the US State Department. 
• Kramatorsk strike: Ukrainian officials said 11 people died in a Russian missile strike Tuesday in the city center of Kramatorsk. Colombian parliament member and former High Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo, writer Hector Abad and journalist Catalina Gomez were injured during the attack, according to a statement by Colombia’s high commissioner for peace. The Ukrainian Security Service said it detained a man who allegedly scouted a pizzeria and sent a video of the site to the Russian Armed Forces prior to the strike.
• Dam collapse toll: More than 100 people have died following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson earlier this month, according to an update from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. More than 60 bodies were found on Saturday and Sunday alone, according to the update.
• Belgorod casualties: At least 14 servicemen from the Pskov region in Russia were killed in early June during an incursion in the Belgorod region, according to Pskov Gov. Mikhail Vedernikov. The region 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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the coordinator involved in Tuesday’s deadly attack on Kramatorsk was detained by police.

“Today, the Security Service of Ukraine together with the police special forces detained the person who coordinated this terrorist attack,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Wednesday. 

According to the Ukrainian president, the detained person is being charged with treason and might face life imprisonment. 

Zelensky called people involved in the Kramatorsk attack “betrayers of humanity.” 

“Everyone who helps Russian terrorists destroy life deserves the maximum punishment,” Zelensky said, “And this applies not only to some collaborators. Everything is clear about them. These are people without humanity. Anyone in the world who does not understand that one cannot be an accomplice of a terrorist state must be held accountable by the entire international community.”

Zelensky did not give further details of who the alleged coordinator is or their nationality.

More than 100 people have died following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson earlier this month, according to an update Wednesday from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

More than 60 bodies were found on Saturday and Sunday alone, according to the update.

CNN previously reported that the death toll from the dam collapse had risen to 45, with both Ukrainian and Russian officials giving updates on those killed.

Some background: The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam is one of the biggest industrial and ecological disasters in Europe for decades. The catastrophe has destroyed entire villages, flooded farmland, deprived tens of thousands of people of power and clean water, and caused massive environmental damage.

It’s still impossible to say whether the dam collapsed because it was deliberately targeted or if the breach could have been caused by structural failure. The dam and hydroelectric power plant are under Russian control and therefore inaccessible to independent investigators, leaving experts around the world trying to piece together what happened based on limited visual evidence.

Several Western officials have blamed Russia for the disaster, either directly accusing Moscow of targeting the dam or saying that Russia is responsible simply because it is the aggressor in the war on Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the rebellion led by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin weakened Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

"I believe that he is weakened because it shows that the autocratic structures, the power structures, have cracked and that he is by no means sitting as solidly and firmly in the saddle as he keeps claiming everywhere," Scholz said in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD.

The chancellor did not comment on the question of whether he would have considered Putin being ousted as desirable. 

"After all, we don't know whether someone better or worse would come after Putin," the chancellor said.

An American volunteer in Ukraine said he was at a Kramatorsk restaurant when it was hit by a Russian missile on Tuesday evening.

Nick Duckworth, 28, from Sonora, California, said he arrived at the Ria Lounge restaurant with colleagues around 20 minutes before the missile attack, which took place just after 7.30 p.m. local time.

“I can remember trying to tell my team to get down but failing before it hit,” Duckworth said in messages exchanged with CNN.
“Once they moved, I ran to help a translator for a journalist team who had severe injuries. Once a more qualified medical professional reached her and our team’s paramedic arrived on scene, I ran into the restaurant to start assessing where help was needed most – which included trying to reach a girl pinned by the roof and a pillar. As well as starting to help move debris where others were pinned but in more stable conditions,” he continued.

Duckworth said there was a children’s party at the restaurant. “There was a kids' party, a lot of other humanitarian workers, and journalists. Very few actual military personnel were in the area in comparison to the mass amount of civilians.”

His group had almost ended up sitting inside the restaurant, where the full impact of the strike was felt, except a server managed to find them a table outside at the last minute. He said this likely saved his life.

“The only table open inside would have been buried under the rubble,” Duckworth said.

He and his colleagues, including British volunteer Mo Hornik, escaped with only minor injuries and posted pictures on Facebook from the scene and inside the hospital.

Duckworth said he had been in Ukraine for around 14 months working for a humanitarian charity delivering aid to civilians in frontline villages. He has posted frequently on Facebook about delivering medical supplies and other provisions to frontline areas in eastern Ukraine.

“We are only more united and motivated to continue our work through this act of terror,” Duckworth wrote in a post on Facebook.

CNN has reached out to the US State Department for comment.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he “did not doubt” the support of Russian citizens during the Wagner rebellion over the weekend, according to a Kremlin readout on Wednesday.

“There is no person in Dagestan who would not support the decisions of the leadership of the Russian Federation, which were adopted on June 24 this year," Dagestan's President Sergey Melikov said at a working meeting with Putin.
“I had no doubts about the reactions in Dagestan and throughout the country,” Putin replied. 

Putin visited the Dagestan region on Wednesday and was met by excited supporters in the streets of the city of Derbent, according to video posted by the Kremlin.