On Monday, in apparent reprisal for what Russian President Vladimir Putin labeled a “terrorist strike” on a critical bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula, Russia initiated attacks against the city of Kyiv and dozens of areas in Ukraine.
The rocket and missile attacks across the nation, along with the missile strikes on the center of the capital city, signaled a dramatic escalation by Russia as its troops are being driven back by the Ukrainian military on thousands of miles of territory and as Putin faces mounting criticism for the failures of what he calls a “special military operation.”
At least 83 missiles were launched on the nation on Monday, resulting in at least five civilian deaths and 12 injuries in Kyiv. According to the armed forces of Ukraine, air defenses were successful in shooting down 43 missiles.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, said in a video speech from Kyiv that Russia had targeted a dozen areas of his nation with missiles and Iranian drones, including Lviv in the west, Mykolaiv in the south, Dnipro in the east, and Kharkiv in the north. Additionally, he called Russian government officials “terrorists,” claiming that their strikes were meant to damage Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and hit civilians.
They seek to disrupt our energy grid and spread fear. They are helpless. The second objective is people. However, he said, “Ukraine existed before this opponent emerged, and Ukraine will be after him. Such a moment and such targets were specifically picked to do as much harm as possible.”
Video and pictures from the early morning strikes on Kyiv appeared to show damage across from the opera house, a crater in a playground in the city’s main park, and blown-out windows in buildings.
Zelensky said that in order to speak at an emergency meeting of the Group of Seven countries, he made urgent phone calls to the chancellor of Germany, Olaf Sholz, and the president of France, Emanuel Macron.
“We addressed the bolstering of our air defense, the necessity for a forceful European and international response, as well as increasing pressure on the Russian Federation,” Zelensky said of his conversation with Macron.
The foreign minister of Moldova, Nicu Popescu, said that the Russian ambassador had been called after three cruise missiles fired from Russian ships in the Black Sea seemed to pass into Ukraine’s neighbors.
Moldova strongly condemns the three Russian cruise missiles that violated its airspace while attacking Ukrainian towns this morning, Popescu tweeted. “We denounce Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.”
The assaults on Ukraine come a day after Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Zhaporzhzhia left at least 13 people dead and 50 wounded, including six children.
Following the significant explosion on the Kerch Bridge early on Saturday morning, Ukrainians have been preparing for similar assaults. The road and train line is considered to be particularly significant to Putin and serves as both a physical and symbolic expression of Russia’s authority over Crimea since Moscow seized the peninsula in 2014.
Putin described the bridge explosion as “a terrorist attack” and identified “Ukraine’s secret services” as the “initiators, actors, and masterminds” in a video speech on Sunday night.
Security analysts wonder if Ukraine truly carried out such an assault because Ukrainian officials haven’t admitted responsibility while simultaneously celebrating the bridge’s collapse.
“Among the specialists, there were significant considerations; we spoke a lot about whether we should do it and when,” remarked Hanna Shelest, director of security initiatives at the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism.”
On the one hand, she continued, “we realize the need of it for logistics, since the Russian weapons and gasoline supplies for the southern front are absolutely happening through this bridge and it would be excellent to not have it.
She said, “But at the same time, recognizing the symbolism for the Russian president, the dangers of the reaction were higher than the practical repercussions, since you always can target all those ammo stocks directly, by HIMARS, what they’ve been doing all these months.
We’ve been celebrating the bridge’s concept rather than the fact that it was really built, according to Shelest. “Not one Ukrainian service stated anything about it, ‘we can do it,’ or “how it happened.”
Following the appointment of Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of Russian forces battling in Ukraine on Saturday, a barrage of assaults on Ukraine have been launched, according to Reuters. Surovikin has also deployed in Syria, Chechnya, and Tajikistan.
Additionally, the unpredictable nature of Putin’s conduct of the conflict in Ukraine has alarmed security analysts, allies, and the United States that Putin is about to use nuclear weapons with disastrous consequences.
The Russian leader has often brought up his country’s nuclear arsenal, urging people not to see his warnings as a “bluff” against what he described as Russia’s national security interests.
In an interview with ABC on Sunday, Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, claimed that after suffering increasing defeats in Ukraine, Putin is a “cornered animal” and is growing “more and more hazardous” to the rest of the globe.
In light of Putin’s nuclear threats, President Biden last week issued a dire warning that “Armageddon” was imminent.
