EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for the bombing of a vital bridge that links Russia and Crimea, which he has previously described as an ”act of terrorism”.
Russian forces launched a barrage of fatal bombardments across Ukraine early on Monday and President Vladimir Putin has vowed even more “severe” retaliation against Kyiv.
Putin said the widespread missile attack on Ukraine was in retaliation for “terrorist action” against Russia.
At least 14 people have been killed and 97 injured in the Russian missile attack across Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s National Police, and several areas have been left without electricity and water.
President Putin spoke at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council and said: “If attacks continue against Russia, the response will be harsh.
“The responses will be of the same scale as the threats to Russia.
“In the event of further attempts to carry out terrorist acts on our territory, Russia’s response will be harsh.”
The missile strikes on Ukraine have been condemned across the world, and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” by the attack.
He said the missiles were “another unacceptable escalation of the war” in which civilians were being impacted.
The European Union has said a war crime has been committed by Russia, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission said Russia had shown the world it stands for “brutality and terror”.
US President Joe Biden said the attack showed “the utter brutality” of President Putin’s “illegal war”.
The White House has confirmed that President Biden has spoken with President Zelensky and that he “pledged to continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defence systems”.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the former prime minister of Ukraine, said in an interview with Sky News that Russia had targeted “critical infrastructure” in the missile attack which will cause power cuts and put hospitals in “jeopardy”.
He added that the West were right to condemn the attacks, but there needed to be “clear-cut strong and bold actions” against Russia.
President Putin has warned he was ready to authorise more “severe” attacks, and Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said: “The first episode has been played. There will be others”.
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of President Putin, has said he has ordered troops to deploy alongside Russian forces near Ukraine, a possible sign that the Russian President is planning to escalate the attacks against Ukraine.
President Lukashenko has accused Ukraine of planning attacks against Belarus alongside Western allies, and said: “This is crazy from the point of the military.
However, the process has begun. Their owners are pushing them to unleash a war against Belarus in order to drag us in.”
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