(Kyiv) Deadly Russian shelling on a scale not seen in months hit Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine on Monday, attacks denounced as “indiscriminate” attacks by Westerners, two days after the blast that seriously damaged the Crimean Russian Bridge.
Posted at 7:14 a.m.
Updated at 9:18 a.m.
Belarus made him fear the opening of a new front on the northern border of Ukraine by announcing an unspecified deployment of joint troops with its Russian ally. President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine of preparing “terrorist” attacks and an “uprising” in his country.
“They are trying to destroy us all, to wipe us off the face of the Earth,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted Monday morning as Russian missiles hit Ukrainian cities, calling on his Western allies for a “tough” response to the Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his “massive” bombardments by denouncing Ukraine’s “terrorist” attack on the bridge linking Russian territory to Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
PHOTO REUTERS
A rescue worker at the scene of an explosion in Zaporizhia.
The strikes left at least 11 dead and 89 injured across the country, according to the latest police report.
Prime Minister Denis Chmygal, indicated that eleven important infrastructures had been damaged in eight regions, in addition to the capital.
PHOTO SERGEI CHUZAVKOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Cars were destroyed in the center of Kyiv.
“They want to destroy the energy system,” said Volodymyr Zelensky, as power cuts affected many Ukrainian regions.
These strikes caused outrage in the West.
“First Episode”
The European Union considered that these attacks amounted to “war crimes” for which those responsible will have to “account”, calling on Belarus to “not be a party to the brutal aggression carried out by Russia”.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres denounced “an unacceptable escalation” and French President Emmanuel Macron deplored a “profound change in the nature” of the conflict.
NATO, which Ukraine aims to join, has condemned “horrible and indiscriminate attacks” against civilian infrastructure and promised its support for Kyiv “as long as necessary”, according to its secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured Ukraine of Washington’s “support” after the “horrifying Russian strikes”.
Berlin has announced a virtual emergency meeting of G7 leaders and President Volodomyr Zelensky for Tuesday at 8 a.m. EDT. Germany will also urgently deliver a long-promised first anti-aircraft defense system.
SPUTNIK PHOTO VIA REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a videoconference of his security council from Saint Petersburg.
Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia had carried out a “massive” bombing campaign “against Ukraine’s energy, military and communications infrastructure” in response to the “terrorist” attack on the Crimean bridge.
He promised “severe” responses in the event of further Ukrainian attacks on Russia. The strikes “achieved their objective”, assured the Russian Ministry of Defense.
On Sunday, Mr. Putin accused Ukraine of having organized the explosion on Saturday morning which destroyed part of the Crimean Bridge, built at great expense and inaugurated in 2018. The attack killed three people.
Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied his involvement.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev, current number 2 of the Russian Security Council, has gone further, already promising that Monday’s strikes were only a “first episode” and calling for the “total dismantling of the political system of Ukraine”.
“Kill civilians”
According to the Ukrainian Defense, the Russian army on Monday launched 83 missiles, of which 52 were intercepted, as well as Iranian-made drones on the country.
Half a dozen explosions were heard in Kyiv, with strikes in several neighborhoods, including the city center, including pulverizing a children’s playground in Taras Shevchenko Park. In the nearby street, the missile left a crater, with a lifeless body lying under a thermal blanket.
PHOTO SERGEI SUPINSKY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The windows of an office building shattered in Kyiv during the blasts.
“I am very shocked. I arrived in Kyiv this morning. I was walking in the street… when there were the explosions,” said 22-year-old Ivan Poliakov.
“There is a university, two museums, there is no military target. They just kill civilians,” said Ksenia Riazantseva, a resident of the neighborhood.
Ukraine said Russia was carrying out the massive strikes out of desperation over recent setbacks on multiple fronts.
PHOTO MYKOLA SYNELNYKOV, REUTERS
A huge crater has formed in Dnipro, hit by bombardments.
“Putin is desperate because of battlefield defeats, and he is using missile terrorism to try to change the tempo of the war in his favor,” Dmytro Kouleba blasted on Twitter.
An ally of Moscow but who had so far refrained from sending his troops to support Moscow, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused Kyiv of preparing an attack against his country, adding that Minsk and Moscow would therefore deploy Russian troops. -Belarusians, without specifying their location.
He also accused Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine of plotting “terrorist” attacks and a “military uprising” in Belarus.