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President Vladimir Putin threatened further missile attacks on Ukraine after Russia hit Kyiv and other cities in the most intense barrage of strikes since the first days of its invasion, marking a dangerous new escalation in the war.
“If attempts to commit terrorist acts on our territory continue, the responses from Russia will be harsh and their scale will correspond to the level of threat to Russia,” Putin said in televised comments to a meeting of his Security Council on Monday. “No one should have any doubts.”
He confirmed Monday’s “massive strikes” targeted energy and communications infrastructure in Ukraine, as well as military command installations. Those came a day after Putin accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out an explosion Saturday that damaged a road and rail bridge connecting Crimea across the Kerch Strait to Russia.
The broad burst of firepower prompted an outcry from international leaders, who said the assault was a significant escalation that targeted civilians and the nation’s infrastructure. Group of Seven leaders plan to hold an emergency video conference together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address the attack on Tuesday.
“They are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the Earth,” Zelenskiy said on his Telegram channel, urging people to stay in bomb shelters as air-raid alerts sounded in every region of the country except occupied Crimea. “Unfortunately there are dead and wounded.”
Russia launched 83 missile strikes at Ukraine on Monday fired from Astrakhan in southern Russia, 43 of which were intercepted, a spokesman for air defense, Yuriy Ihnat, said. The assault also included Iranian-made Shahed-136 unmanned drones from Belarus and Crimea, the military said.
At least 10 explosions were reported in Kyiv. Russian forces continued a missile assault on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said, and explosions took place in Odesa, Dnipro and Lviv in Ukraine’s west, far from the front lines.
