Vladimir Putin has vowed a ‘severe’ response to attacks on Russia after firing dozens of missiles at Ukraine this morning, blowing up power networks and killing civilians in retaliation for the Crimean bridge blast at the weekend. Not a single Ukrainian soldier has died in Putin’s attacks, only civilians. This man needs to be brought before an international tribunal for war crimes.
At least 83 rockets were fired, Ukraine’s military said, with half shot down but half slamming into cities across the country. At least 11 people were killed and 60 wounded, Ukraine said, with eight of those deaths and 42 injuries in Kyiv alone. Rockets also hit the German consulate, but the building was empty.
A mixture of missiles and Iranian-made suicide drones were used to strike the cities of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, northern Kharkiv and Sumy, central Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia, and even far-western Ternopil and Lviv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Some of these cities have not been hit in months.
Putin said he ordered strikes on ‘military, communications, and energy infrastructure’ after what he called ‘terrorist’ attacks by Ukraine – pointing to the Kerch Bridge attack but also accusing Kyiv of bombing one of its own nuclear plants, attacking gas pipes and assassinating officials and journalists.
Putin said: ‘Kyiv’s regime, with its actions, places itself in line with international terrorist organisations. Leaving such crimes without response is impossible. In case of continuing attacks we will respond in [a] harsh manner and in line with [the] level of threats to [the] Russian Federation. Nobody should have any doubt about this.’
Dmitry Medvedev, a staunch ally of Putin, called today’s attacks the ‘first episode’. Dictator Alexander Lukashenko then announced Russian troops will deploy with his forces in Belarus, accusing Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland of ‘preparing attacks’ against him. Belarus has acted as a staging post for Russia’s invasion, but has not yet joined in.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the bridge attack and blames Russia for strikes on nuclear infrastructure and gas pipes. Zelensky said today’s missile attacks had targeted power networks, water supplies, and civilians in an attempt to ‘sow terror’. ‘Russia is trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth,’ he added.
https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1579435560523169793
Oleksii Reznikov, the defence minister, said Ukraine’s courage would never be broken and ‘that the only thing they demolish is the future of [Russia] – a future of a globally despised rogue terrorist state.’
Videos and pictures from the Ukrainian capital showed burning cars and bodies in the streets as officials said rockets hit close to a well-known memorial to a famous statesman, near a children’s play area in a park, and a pedestrian bridge. More footage showed an apartment block in Dnipro in flames.
Putin spoke at a meeting with his security cabinet today to plot further revenge. As the talks got underway, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko announced that a ‘joint military task force’ with Russian troops would be deployed on his western border. Lukashenko has so far not committed any forces to the war.
Meanwhile hardliners within Russia demanded a declaration of full war and the use of nuclear weapons. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had ruled out the atomic option on Sunday, but that will do little to dampen fears as Putin runs out of options having already annexed occupied territory and conscripted hundreds of thousands of troops.
Ukrainian social media networks were flooded with videos of defiance in the wake of the attacks, as people in bomb shelters and in the Kyiv subway network sung the national anthem and other patriotic songs even as bombs fell.
Summing up the mood, Ukraine’s defence ministry tweeted: ‘So, russkies, you really think you can compensate for your impotence on the battlefield with missile strikes on peaceful cities?
‘You just don’t get it do you – your terrorist strikes only make us stronger. We are coming after you.’
Widespread power outages were reported after the Russian salvo, with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal saying 11 ‘key infrastructure facilities’ were hit without giving further details. Some cities were also reported to have water shortages.
The Kremlin was humiliated two days ago when a blast damaged Europe’s longest bridge, which it had built after it seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. Ukraine, which views the bridge as a military target sustaining Russia’s war effort, celebrated the blast without officially claiming responsibility.
With troops suffering weeks of setbacks on the battlefield, Russian authorities have been facing the first sustained public criticism at home of the war, with commentators on state television demanding ever tougher measures.
Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. army forces in Europe, said the scale of the strikes suggested Russia’s plan to escalate may have been drawn up before the bridge was attacked.
Monday’s strikes tore a huge crater next to a children’s playground in one of central Kyiv’s busiest parks. The remains of an apparent missile were buried, smoking in the mud.
More volleys of missiles struck the capital again later in the morning. Pedestrians huddled for shelter at the entrance of Metro stations and inside parking garages.
Germany said a building housing its consulate in Kyiv had been hit in Monday’s strike, though it had not been used since the war started on Feb. 24. The European Union condemned Monday’s ‘barbaric and cowardly attacks’ on Ukraine, among a chorus of denunciations from Western countries.
By mid-morning, Ukraine’s defence ministry said Russia had fired 81 cruise missiles, and Ukraine’s air defences had shot down 43 of them. Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit all its intended targets.
Security camera footage showed shrapnel and flames engulfing a glass-bottomed footbridge across a wooded valley in the city centre, one of Kyiv’s most popular tourist sites. One pedestrian could be seen running from the blast. Reuters later saw a huge crater below the bridge, damaged but still standing.
Zelenskiy filmed a video message on a mobile phone on an empty central Kyiv street. He said the strikes had two main targets: energy infrastructure and people.
‘Such a time and such targets were specially chosen to cause as much damage as possible,’ he said.
Prime Minister Denys Shmygal promised to restore utilities as quickly as possible. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: ‘Putin is a terrorist who talks with missiles.’
Olena Somyk, 41, sheltered with her 6-year-old daughter, Daria, in an underground garage where hundreds of other people waited for the all-clear. She had reached Kyiv earlier in the war after fleeing through Russia and across Europe from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson.
‘Really, I think they did this because they are bastards,’ said Somyk. Putin, she said, ‘is a small angry man, so we don’t know what more to expect’.
In another sign of possible escalation, Putin’s closest ally, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, said on Monday he had ordered troops to deploy jointly with Russian forces near Ukraine, which he accused of planning attacks on Belarus with its Western backers.
‘Their owners are pushing them to start a war against Belarus to drag us there,’ he said, citing no evidence. Lukashenko allowed Belarus to be used as a staging ground for Russia early in the war but has not sent his troops to fight.
Within Russia, the strikes were cheered by hawks. Ramzan Kadyrov, the staunchly pro-Kremlin leader of Russia’s Chechnya region who had demanded in recent days that military commanders be sacked, hailed Monday’s attacks: ‘Now I am 100% satisfied with how the special military operation is being conducted.’
‘We warned you Zelensky, that Russia hasn’t even got started yet, so stop complaining … and run! Run away without looking back to the West,’ he wrote.
Russia has faced major setbacks on the battlefield since the start of September, with Ukrainian forces bursting through front lines and recapturing territory. Putin responded to the losses by ordering a mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists, proclaiming the annexation of occupied territory and threatening repeatedly to use nuclear weapons.
Russian officials had predicted retaliation of the highest order after the bridge attack. Alexander Baskin, a Russian senator, confidently suggested that the Kremlin’s response would be ‘adequate, conscious and possibly asymmetric’, the Mirror reported.
He added: ‘This was a declaration of war without rules.’
A red-faced Putin yesterday blamed Ukrainian special forces for the explosion which severely damaged the key link to the Russian mainland.
The livid president said the blast at Kerch Bridge was designed to destroy ‘critically important civilian infrastructure’. He declared that the attack was a terrorist incident.
Speaking before today’s Russian attacks, Lord Dannatt, former head of the British Army, said Putin could order the indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities and could even ‘go nuclear’.
However, the Kremlin has played down fears from Western observers that it could use nuclear weapons, saying it is ‘completely incorrect’ that it was considering using them in response.
Russian governors predicted today’s revenge missile attacks after the destruction of the bridge on Saturday morning, which was considered to be one of Putin’s pet projects.
The bridge has been a symbol of Russian power in Crimea since its annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
The bridge, which spans 19km from Crimea to the Russian mainland, has been used as one of the main supply routes for Russian troops since the illegal invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, allowing Putin to resupply and back up forces occupying Kherson and other southern regions of Ukraine.
Its destruction in a huge blast in the early hours of Saturday morning was a huge blow to the Russian war effort and was a slap in the face for the Russian president.
In a video released on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel yesterday, Putin blamed Ukrainian special forces while meeting with Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, who was presenting findings of an inquiry into the explosion and fire on the bridge.
The Russian president said: ‘There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure. This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services.’
Mr Bastrykin said he had opened a criminal case into an act of terrorism and added that while Ukrainian soldiers had taken part, citizens of Russia and other countries were also involved.
He said investigations ‘have already established the route of the truck’ that Russian authorities said set off a bomb and explosion on the bridge.
Mr Bastrykin said the truck had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, Krasnodar (a region in southern Russia) and other places.
Today Putin will chair the meeting with his Security Council (SCRF) as he looks to formulate a response to the latest setback in his ill-judged war.
The former head of the British Army, General Lord Richard Dannatt, warned that Putin could now opt for the Armageddon approach after the Kremlin previously insisted that an attack on Crimea would ‘cross a red line’.
However, the country has once again denied this will happen, saying suggestions it could use nuclear weapons after designating the attack an act of terrorism ‘completely incorrect’.
The 12 mile long bridge over the Kerch strait links Crimea to the Russian mainland and is a major artery for Putin’s forces that control most of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol.
It was damaged in an explosion early Saturday morning which saw chunks of the bridge fall into the sea and a large fire break out.
The incident prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials – though no claim of responsibility – and video footage of the bridge appeared to show a mysterious wave crest underneath the structure moments before the blast, prompting speculation that a Ukrainian-piloted boat or drone was likely behind it.
Russia meanwhile claimed a truck bomb had exploded, and has not apportioned blame for the damage.
The meeting of the security council today comes as top Putin propagandists and Russian regional governors called for total war in Ukraine in response to the bridge explosion.
Leading Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov demanded a brutal Stalinist response to ‘plunge Ukraine into dark times’ and round up all Russians against total war in the wake of the humiliating hit on the bridge.
Alluding to an enemy within, Solovyov called for a return of the notorious Stalin-era SMERSH counter-intelligence to crush all internal opposition to a full-scale war against Ukraine.
SMERSH, whose motto was ‘Death to Spies’, was a conglomeration of counterintelligence agencies used by Stalin to root out and obliterate those trying to subvert his regime during and after World War II.
Crimea’s Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov declared there is a ‘healthy desire to seek revenge’ following the explosion which destroyed parts of the Kerch bridge yesterday morning and killed three people.
Rocket attacks have already rained down on the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia since the bridge explosion, killing 17 people late last night and early this morning.
Shocking footage circulated on social media by Ukrainian officials showed rescue workers pulling an elderly woman from the debris this morning after the attack reduced one high-rise residential building to rubble and damaged neighbouring structures.
An earlier clip saw rescue workers and forlorn residents picking their way over the mounds of twisted metal and smashed bricks as they searched for survivors and attempted to salvage what little remained from the devastation.
City council secretary Anatoly Kurtev said at least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings were damaged in the blasts, in addition to the high-rise that was flattened.
Russia in recent weeks has repeatedly struck Zaporizhzhia, which is in the Ukrainian controlled-part of a region that Putin annexed in violation of international law last week.
On Thursday, at least 19 people died in Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings in the southern city, which lies just 80 miles from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
‘Again, Zaporizhzhia. Again, merciless attacks on civilians, targeting residential buildings, in the middle of the night,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post.
‘Absolute meanness. Absolute evil. … From the one who gave this order, to everyone who carried out this order: they will answer. They must. Before the law and the people,’ he added.
While Russia targeted Zaporizhzhia several times prior to Saturday’s explosion on the Crimea bridge, last night’s missile attack will likely be seen as a retributive action as it came just hours after the damage was dealt to the symbol of Russian power in the annexed peninsula.
RELATED ARTICLES
- After Fooling the People to Reelect Putin, Russia now announces More Cannon Fodder Mobilizations
- Russia Fires Barrage of North Korean Missiles at Kyiv After US Visit
- Ex-Wagner fighters Join Free Russia Army's Battle to Liberate Russia from Putin Occupation
- Hungary Becomes First EU Country to Congratulate Putin for Winning the 'Elections'
- Putin says NATO Troops are already in Ukraine But Russia is Still Winning
Loading ...
Congratulations Russia ! Great job ! Don’t stop before the job is done ! May God bless you in your effort to fight the new world order.
Congratulations on showing readers how depraved and misinformed people can be. Your comment wreaks of a person suffering from a lack of intellectual understanding of governing large groups of people, for being able to see thE world as one instead of a bunch of separatist fighting of world dominance. But you are entitled and for that you still have a right to practice free speech and expression. BUt my friend, under Mr Putins rule. that is the first freedom YOU WOULD LOOSE! The world is full of under educated morons living in fear. Welcome to a that group.
You are right, the world is full of under educated morons and most of them are in the USA, led by the biggest moron of all, Joe Biden.