Expanding NATO squares up to Russia as Putin slams 'imperial' alliance

Firefighters in the southern city of Mykolaiv clear rubble and search for people trapped in a 5-storey residential building that was hit by a Russian missile srike.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo are seen during their talks in Kyiv, in a photo released by the Ukrainian presidential press service on June 29, 2022

The United States vowed to reinforce Europe's defences in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as NATO declared Moscow the West's greatest threat -- prompting Vladimir Putin to lash out at the alliance's "imperial ambitions".

Meeting in Madrid Wednesday, NATO leaders said Russia "is the most significant and direct threat to allies' security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area".

Biden said that the US move was exactly what Russian President Putin "didn't want" -- and Moscow, facing fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces equipped with Western arms, reacted with predictable fury.

"The NATO countries' leaders wish to... assert their supremacy, their imperial ambitions," the Russian president added.

"Ukraine can count on us for as long as it takes," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said at the summit, which ends Thursday, announcing a new strategic overview that focuses on the Moscow threat.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed NATO's "clear-eyed stance on Russia".

Russian missiles continued to rain down across Ukraine. Zelensky said that a missile strike on the southern city of Mykolaiv destroyed a five-storey building, killing at least five people. 

"The Russians are throwing almost all of their resources at capturing Lysychansk," Sergiy Gaiday, regional governor of Lugansk, which includes the city, said on Telegram. 

The Lysychansk refinery also has come under attack, he added. 

"After numerous months of delay, the first merchant ship has left the Berdyansk commercial port, 7,000 tonnes of grain are heading toward friendly countries," Evgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Russia administration, said on Telegram.

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

At a hospital in the city, some of the wounded recalled the moment of the attack.  

"I guess I lost consciousness, because when I woke up I was crawling out of the rubble."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said that 144 of their soldiers, most of them former defenders of the Azovstal steelworks in the southern port city of Mariupol, had been freed in a prisoner swap with Moscow.

Moscow's invasion triggered massive economic sanctions and a wave of support for Zelensky's government, including deliveries of advanced weapons, as well as the reinforcement of Europe's defences.

An army brigade will rotate in and out of Romania, two squadrons of F-35 fighters will deploy to Britain, US air defence systems will be sent to Germany and Italy, and the fleet of US Navy destroyers in Spain will grow from four to six.

In a report released Thursday, Amnesty International said a theatre sheltering civilians destroyed in March in the besieged city of Mariupol was likely hit by a Russian airstrike in a war crime.

Nevertheless, the group also found the death toll may have been smaller than initially believed. Amnesty believes at least a dozen people died in the attack although it is likely many additional fatalities remain unreported. 

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