At least five people were killed and twelve injured in the Russian rocket attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. “As of this writing, the deaths of five and the injuries of 12 Kievans have been confirmed,” Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said on his Telegram channel. A children’s playground was also hit. The rocket attacks are seen as the Kremlin’s response to the explosion at the Crimean Bridge, which is strategic for Russia.
Medvedev’s threat
Earlier, Deputy Chief of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev threatened Ukraine with retaliation for the explosion on the Crimean bridge, which is strategic for Russia, on Saturday. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin spoke of a “terrorist attack” on the bridge on Sunday and – like the media in Kyiv – blamed the Ukrainian secret service SBU. However, the SBU had not confirmed an involvement.
The SBU headquarters is located in the city center in Kyiv. The power center in Moscow has repeatedly threatened to target command posts in the Ukrainian capital if the shelling of Russian territory does not stop. Kyiv has been hit by Russian missiles several times since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. It was the worst incident of its kind and the first attack on the city in months.
Impacts in several major cities
After heavy explosions in a number of major cities, an air alert has been issued in almost all parts of Ukraine. “A massive rocket attack on the area, there are dead and wounded,” said the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region around the industrial city of Dnipro, Valentin Resnichenko, on his Telegram channel. The authorities in Lviv, Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr also report impacts.
Resnichenko called on the residents of the area to stay in the bomb shelters. According to reports, not only the regional capital of Dnipro was hit, but also the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, which are across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. In the city of Zaporizhia there was also an air alert in the morning after the nightly rocket attacks.
Russia’s National Security Council meets
Medvedev said on Sunday: “All reports and conclusions have been made. Russia’s answer to this crime can only be direct annihilation of the terrorists.” He expressed himself in an interview with the Kremlin journalist Nadana Friedrichson. “This is what the citizens of Russia are waiting for,” he said ahead of a scheduled Security Council meeting this Monday that Putin will chair.
On Saturday morning, an explosion shook the 19-kilometer bridge that connects Russia and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Around seven and a half months after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the building, which is strategically and symbolically important for Russia, was severely damaged. According to official information from Moscow, three people died.
