Putin says response to more Ukrainian attacks will be ‘severe’

Russia’s president threatens harsh response to additional assaults after Moscow launched retaliatory assaults throughout Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin has stated Russia’s response to any additional Ukrainian assaults could be “extreme”, as Moscow’s forces carried out retaliatory missile assaults throughout a number of Ukrainian cities following an explosion on a bridge linking Crimea with Russia.

“It was not potential to go away [Ukrainian attacks] unanswered. If makes an attempt at terrorist assaults proceed, the response from Russia shall be extreme and correspond to the extent of risk,” Putin stated on Monday at first of a televised assembly of his Safety Council.

“Let there be little doubt about it,” he stated.

Putin’s remarks come after an enormous blast on Saturday broken a key bridge in Crimea, Putin’s flagship mission and a significant transport hyperlink between Russia and the peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014.

In response to the assault, Putin stated Russia carried out “a large strike with high-precision, long-range weapons … on vitality, army command and communications amenities in Ukraine”.

Russia’s defence ministry stated in a press release the collection of assaults “have achieved their aims. All targets have been hit.”

Putin additionally accused Ukraine of launching three assaults on the Kursk nuclear energy plant in Russia, about 85km (53 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and of trying to hit the TurkStream fuel pipeline operating from Russia to Turkey below the Black Sea.

‘First episode’

Ukraine’s Emergency Service stated a complete of not less than 11 folks had been killed and 64 had been wounded within the morning assaults throughout Ukraine – the largest and broadest for the reason that early days of the conflict.

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was hit by a number of Russian missiles early on Monday – the primary since late June.

Blasts hit the capital’s Shevchenko district, a big space within the centre of town that features the historic outdated city in addition to a number of authorities places of work, Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated.

A few of the Russian missiles hit close to the federal government quarter within the symbolic coronary heart of the capital, the place parliament and different main landmarks are situated. A glass tower housing places of work was considerably broken, most of its blue-tinted home windows blown out.

Residents had been seen on the streets with blood on their garments and palms, whereas a number of vehicles had been additionally broken or destroyed. Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly throughout the nation.

Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev stated the assaults had been solely the “first episode” and that Russia’s purpose must be “the whole dismantling of Ukraine’s political regime”.

Russia additionally launched assaults on a number of different cities throughout Ukraine, significantly concentrating on vitality infrastructure.

Electrical energy cuts had been reported in a number of areas, together with Ukraine’s second metropolis Kharkiv and its surrounding area, plus the northeastern Sumy area, Zhytomyr area within the north and Khmelnytskyi area within the west.

The sustained barrage on main cities additionally hit residential areas, portending a big surge within the conflict amid a profitable Ukrainian counteroffensive in latest weeks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Russian forces launched dozens of missiles and Iranian-built drones towards Ukraine.

His prime minister stated 11 main infrastructure targets had been hit in eight areas, leaving swaths of the nation with no electrical energy, water or warmth.

The Common Workers of the Ukraine Armed Forces stated 75 missiles had been fired towards Ukrainian targets, of which 41 had been neutralised by air defences.

The targets had been civilian areas and vitality amenities in 10 cities, Zelenskyy stated in a video handle.

“[The Russians] selected such a time and such targets on function to inflict probably the most injury,” he stated.