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What Madrid and Kremenchuk showed on 29 June 2022
Summary
A look back at the day NATO's Madrid summit opened with a US pledge for a permanent base in Poland, two days after the Kremenchuk missile strike.
What did allies promise Ukraine and its neighbours in the days around 29 June 2022? At the NATO summit in Madrid, US President Joe Biden announced that a new permanent US military base would be established in Poland. It was to be the headquarters of the 5th Army, which had kept a forward command post in Poznań since the previous year. Poland's government had long requested such a base.
The backdrop: Kremenchuk
The announcement came two days after a missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. On 27 June 2022, two missiles hit a crowded shopping mall. As reported at the time, at least 13 people were killed and at least 50 injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than a thousand people were inside when the strike happened.
Later accounts put the toll higher. They describe two Kh-22 cruise missiles fired into central Kremenchuk, in Poltava Oblast, hitting the Kredmash road machinery plant and the adjacent Amstor shopping mall. A fire broke out, and the attack killed at least 20 people and injured at least 59. Russian media and officials carried conflicting stories about the strike.
Pledges from the G7
The same day as the strike, 27 June 2022, leaders at the G7 summit in Germany issued a statement pledging more financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine. That followed a video message from Zelenskyy calling on allies for more heavy weapons.
A day in context
Taken together, the events of those days set out the alliance's response on two fronts. One was support for Ukraine, as promised by the G7 leaders. The other was a more lasting US military presence in Poland, announced in Madrid on 29 June 2022.
