Vladimir Putin has described Russia’s air strikes on Ukraine, its most extensive since the early weeks of his seven-month invasion, as retaliation for the bombing of the bridge linking Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
Speaking at a meeting of his security council on Monday, the Russian president accused Kyiv of a “terrorist attack” at the Kerch bridge, damaged by an explosion on Saturday, and said “leaving such a crime without a response is just impossible”.
Though Putin claimed the targets were military, energy and communications assets, early footage and evidence of the damage showed that a playground and a bridge in central Kyiv were hit, as well as civilian infrastructure across the country. Russia’s defence ministry said its strikes “hit all the assigned targets”.
The Russian army has been losing ground in regions of southeastern Ukraine that Putin unilaterally claimed as part of Russia last month. On Saturday, Moscow suffered a blow to its prestige after the attack on the bridge, a symbol of the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, which it had claimed to be well guarded.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said on Twitter: “Russia had been constantly hitting Ukraine with missiles before the bridge, too. Putin is desperate because of battlefield defeats and uses missile terror to try to change the pace of war in his favor.”
Ukraine’s air force said more than 80 Russian missiles had been fired at targets across the country by afternoon local time. “High-precision ground, sea and air-based wing missiles” were used, the air force wrote on Facebook. Air defences managed to intercept at least 41 of the missiles, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said in the morning. Ukraine also said it destroyed nine of 12 Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.
The missiles also struck Lviv, in western Ukraine; Dnipro, in the centre of the country; and several other cities, including Zaporizhzhia and Mykolayiv in the south, which are close to the frontline.
There were reports of explosions in the Black Sea port of Odesa, and air raid alerts went off in every part of Ukraine, other than occupied Crimea.
Putin warned he was prepared to repeat the strikes if Ukraine continued to hit Russian infrastructure targets. On Sunday, he accused Ukrainian intelligence services of hitting the Kerch bridge.
“If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, Russia’s response will be severe and at the level of the threats facing it. Nobody should be in any doubt,” Putin said on Monday.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the Kerch bridge attack, though senior officials gloated on social media and the post office issued a stamp commemorating the blast.
Three cruise missiles launched from Russian ships in the Black Sea had crossed Moldova’s airspace on Monday, said Moldova’s foreign minister Nicu Popescu, adding that he had summoned Russia’s ambassador to Chișinău, the capital.
The strikes killed at least 10 people and injured at least 60, Maryanna Reva, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s police, said on state television, citing preliminary details.
Russia’s missile attacks on Ukrainian cities on Monday “amount to war crimes”, the EU said. Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg called them “horrific and indiscriminate”, vowing the alliance would support Ukraine against Russia “for as long as it takes”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he had spoken with Kuleba to express support for Kyiv following the strikes. “We will continue to provide unwavering economic, humanitarian and security assistance so Ukraine can defend itself and take care of its people,” Blinken wrote on Twitter.
Nato will host a meeting of western countries supplying arms to Ukraine on Wednesday, and a gathering of defence ministers from the 30 allied countries on Thursday.
The strikes came two days after Russia appointed Sergei Surovikin, a former air force general known for his ruthlessness in leading Russia’s operations in Syria, as commander of its invasion operations.
Hardline Russian war supporters, who had criticised the army for its battlefield setbacks and called on Putin to escalate Russia’s efforts in the war, cheered Surovikin’s appointment and the strikes.
“There’s the response for you,” Margarita Simonyan, editor of Kremlin-funded news channel RT, wrote on social media app Telegram. “The Crimean bridge was the red line from the very beginning. It was obvious,” she added.
In Kyiv, missiles or rockets struck the central intersection of Volodymyrska Street and Shevchenko Boulevard, at the north-west entrance of Shevchenko park, one of the busiest junctions in the Ukrainian capital during the morning rush hour.
Images showed damage to a children’s playground in Shevchenko park and to a pedestrian bridge nicknamed the “Klitschko” bridge after the city’s mayor.
Photos and videos sent to the Financial Times by government officials showed first responders and ambulances at the scene.
Images on Telegram showed damage to a skyscraper near the main train station in Kyiv, housing the offices of DTEK, a large electricity producer owned by Rinat Akhmetov, one of Ukraine’s richest men.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a short video saying Russia had used missiles and suicide drones to target “critical infrastructure” and ordinary citizens. “They want panic and chaos, they want to destroy our energy system. They are hopeless,” he said, standing outside his office in downtown Kyiv.
Separately, Belarus’s leader Alexander Lukashenko said he and Putin had agreed to set up a joint group of troops “because of the escalation on the western borders” of both countries, according to Belarus state news agency Belta on Monday. His remarks follow a meeting with Putin last week.
Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally, has allowed Russia to use its territory to attack Ukraine since Putin’s invasion began in February but has resisted letting its own troops and equipment be drawn into the conflict.
Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels
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2022-10-10 15:37:01Z
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