Explained: The missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and bombing of Crimean bridge

At least eight people have been killed in Kyiv after Moscow unleashed a lethal barrage of strikes against multiple Ukrainian cities in response to an attack on a key bridge between connecting Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

The Kerch Bridge is important to Russia strategically, as a military supply line to its forces in Ukraine, and symbolically, as an emblem of its claims on Crimea.

The intense, hours-long attack marked a sudden military escalation by Moscow in what  President Vladimir Putin claimed was retaliation for what he called Kyiv’s “terrorist” actions.

Let’s take a closer look at the bridge attack and Russia’s retaliatiory strikes:

Bridge attack remains mystery

No one has claimed responsibility for damaging the 12-mile (19-kilometer) -long bridge, the longest in Europe.

The blast that hit the bridge sparked celebrations from Ukrainians and others on social media.

Zelensky, in his nightly address on Saturday, did not directly mention the incident, and officials in Kyiv have made no direct claim of responsibility.

“The guided missile cruiser Moskva and the Kerch bridge - two notorious symbols of Russian power in Ukrainian Crimea - have gone down,”  tweeted Ukraine’s ministry of defence on Saturday.

“What’s next in line, Russkies?” it enquired.

On Saturday, Russia said some road and rail traffic had resumed over the strategic link, a symbol of the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“There’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation,” Putin said in a video of a meeting Sunday with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, as per NPR. “And the authors, perpetrators, and those who ordered it are the special services of Ukraine.”

Putin, speaking in a video call with members of Russia’s Security Council, said the Russian military launched “precision weapons” from the air, sea and ground to target key energy and military command facilities.

Putin said Monday that Russia’s response to any further Ukrainian attacks would be “severe”, after Russian forces carried out retaliatory missile strikes across Ukraine.

“It was not possible to leave (Ukrainian attacks) unanswered. If they continue, the response from Russia will be severe and correspond to the level of threat,” the Russian president said at the beginning of a televised meeting of his security council.

NPR quoted Bastrykin as saying Ukrainian special services and citizens of Russia and other countries took part in the attack.

“We have already established the route of the truck,” he said, adding that it had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar — a region in southern Russia — among other places.

“It is too early to be definitive about the cause of the blast based on the publicly available information,” NR Jenzen-Jones, an arms and munitions specialist at Armament Research Services, was quoted as saying by FT.

Some military analysts argue that the blast could have a major impact if Moscow sees the need to shift already hard-pressed troops to Crimea from other regions – or if it prompts a rush by residents to leave.

Eight killed, 24 injured in single strike on Kyiv

At least eight people were killed and 24 were injured in just one of the Kyiv strikes, according to preliminary information, said Rostyslav Smirnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.

Ukraine’s most senior military general said Russian forces had fired 75 missiles on cities across the country, in a wave of attacks that included Iranian drones and was the first Russian strike on Kyiv since late June.

“We were sleeping when we heard the first explosion. We woke up, went to check and then the second explosion came,” Ksenia Ryazantseva, a 39-year-old language teacher told AFP.

“We didn’t understand what was going on … well, we are at war,” she added.

But the sustained barrage on major cities hit residential areas and critical infrastructure facilities alike, portending a major surge in the war amid a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks.

Power outages were reported in several regions across Ukraine following multiple Russian strikes on Monday morning that targeted energy infrastructure, Ukrainian regional officials said.

In the east, electricity cuts hit Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv and its surrounding region, plus the northeastern Sumy region, Zhytomyr region in the north and Khmelnitskyi region in the west.

Moscow’s war in Ukraine is approaching its eight-month milestone, and the Kremlin has been reeling from humiliating battlefield setbacks in areas of eastern Ukraine it is trying to annex.

Blasts struck in the capital’s Shevchenko district, a large area in the center of Kyiv that includes the historic old town as well as several government offices, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Ukrainian officials said the central Shevkenko district of the city was hit and that a university, museums and the philharmonic building had been damaged in the strikes.

One AFP journalist in the city said one of the projectiles landed near a children’s playground, and that smoke was rising from a large crater at the impact site.

Several trees and benches nearby were charred from the blast, while several ambulances had arrived in the area.

“If there is no urgent need, it’s better not to go to the city today. I am also asking the residents of the suburbs about this –- do not go to the capital today.”

Videos posted on social media showed black smoke rising above several areas in the city.

Ukrainian officials including Zelensky urged residents to remain indoors and the mayor of the capital said residents living outside Kyiv should remain outside the city.

In the western city of Lviv, the  mayor Andriy Sadovyi said there were disruptions to electricity and hot water services cuts after bombardments that targeted critical infrastructure, including energy facilities.

Some of the strikes hit near the government quarter in the symbolic heart of the capital, where Parliament and other major landmarks are located. A glass tower housing offices was significantly damaged, most of its blue-tinted windows blown out.

Residents were seen on the streets with blood on their clothes and hands. A young man wearing a blue jacket sat on the ground as a medic wrapped a bandage around his head. A woman with bandages wrapped around her head had blood all over the front of her blouse. Several cars were also damaged or completely destroyed. Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across the country and in Kyiv.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces launched dozens of missiles and Iranian-built drones against Ukraine.

Zelensky in an address to the nation early Monday said the morning had been “difficult” and explained that Russian forces had two targets with its barrage of strikes.

“They want panic and chaos and they want to destroy our energy system,” Zelensky said, announcing that Russian bombs had targeted cities including Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia in the centre of the country and Lviv in the east.

The General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces said 75 missiles were fired against Ukrainian targets, with 41 of them neutralized by air defenses.

The targets were civilian areas and energy facilities in 10 cities, Zelensky said in a video address. “(The Russians) chose such a time and such targets on purpose to inflict the most damage,” Zelensky said.

The morning strikes sent Kyiv residents back into bomb shelters for the first time in months. The city’s subway system stopped train services and made the stations available once more as places for refuge.

While air raid sirens have continued throughout the war in Ukraine’s major cities across the country, in Kyiv and other areas where there have been months of calm many Ukrainians had begun to ignore their warnings and go about their normal business.

That changed on Monday morning. The attacks arrived in Kyiv at the start of the morning rush hour, when commuter traffic was beginning to pick up. At least one of the vehicles struck near the Kyiv National University appeared to be a commuter minibus, known as a “marshrutka” and which is a popular albeit often crowded alternative to the city’s bus and metro routes.

Nearby, at least one strike landed in the popular Shevchenko Park, leaving a large hole near a children’s playground.

Among the targets hit was a pedestrian bridge known as the Klitschko bridge — a landmark in central Kyiv with its glass panels. Closed-circuit television footage shared by an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister showed a huge explosion as the bridge was apparently targeted. A man seen on the bridge just before the explosion is seen running away after the blast.

Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, tweeted a photo showing that at least one explosion occurred near the main building of the Kyiv National University in central Kyiv.

Elsewhere, Russia targeted civilian areas and energy infrastructure as air raid sirens sounded in every region of Ukraine, except Russia-annexed Crimea, for four straight hours.

Associated Press journalists in Dnipro city saw the bodies of multiple people killed at an industrial site on the city’s outskirts. Windows in the area had been blown out and glass littered the street. A telecommunications building was hit.

Ukrainian media also reported explosions in a number of other locations, including the western city of Lviv, which has been a refuge for many people fleeing the fighting in the east, as well as in Kharkiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytskyi.

Kharkiv was hit three times, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

The strikes knocked out the electricity and water supply. Energy infrastructure was also hit in Lviv, regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi said.

Three cruise missiles launched against Ukraine from Russian ships in the Black Sea crossed Moldova’s airspace, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nicu Popescu complained.

Ex-Soviet Moldova, said several of Russian cruise missiles targeting Ukraine had crossed its airspace, and summoned Moscow’s envoy to demand an explanation.

“Our thoughts are with the victims of the brutal strikes,” Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said on Twitter.

Moldova has a small breakaway region, Transnistria, which is armed and supported by Russia.

‘Trying to wipe us off’

Amid the onslaught, Zelensky said on his Telegram account that Russia is “trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth.”

The attacks appeared set to bring a fresh bout of international condemnation for Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said the Group of Seven industrial powers will hold a videoconference Tuesday on the situation which Zelensky will address. Germany currently chairs the G-7.

The attacks brought a chorus of outrage in Europe. French President Emanuel Macron expressed “extreme concern, as the strikes caused civilian casualties” and renewed his pledge of more military aid for Ukraine.

British foreign secretary James Cleverly tweeted that “Russia’s firing of missiles into civilian areas of Ukraine is unacceptable.”

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba broke off his Africa tour and headed back to Ukraine, tweeting that the attacks represented “terror on peaceful Ukrainian cities.”

Some feared Monday’s attacks may just be the first salvo in a renewed Russian offensive. Ukraine’s Ministry of Education announced that all schools in Ukraine must switch to online classes at least until the end of this week.

In an ominous move, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced Monday that he and Putin have agreed to deploy a joint “regional grouping of troops” amid the escalation of fighting in Ukraine. He offered no details as to where the grouping will be deployed, when and what for.

Lukashenko repeated his claims that Ukraine is plotting an attack on Belarus, sparking fears the stage is being set for preemptive action by Minsk.

G7 leaders, Zelensky to discuss strikes on Ukraine

G7 leaders and Zelensky will hold emergency talks on Tuesday to discuss the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine, Berlin said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already spoken by phone with Zelensky and assured him “of the solidarity of Germany and the other G7 states”, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters on Monday.The G7 would start talks by video link at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Tuesday and Zelensky would take part at the beginning of the meeting, he said.

“Germany will do everything in its power to mobilise additional aid and, in particular, to help repair and restore (Ukraine’s) damaged and destroyed civilian infrastructure, such as the electricity and heating supply,” Hebestreit said.

Strikes were reported in multiple cities across Ukraine on Monday morning, including rare attacks on the capital Kyiv and the western Lviv region. Zelensky accused Russia of targeting his country’s energy infrastructure.

‘Amounts to a war crime’

The EU believes Russia’s missile attacks on civilians in Ukraine “amounts to a war crime,” a spokesman for the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday.“Indiscriminately targeting people in a cowardly, heinous hail of missiles on civilian targets is indeed a further escalation,” the spokesman, Peter Stano, said.

“The European Union condemns in the strongest possible terms these heinous attacks on the civilians and civilian infrastructure…. This is something which is against international humanitarian law and this indiscriminate targeting of civilians amounts to a war crime,” he said.

Asked about Russia’s ally Belarus agreeing to deploy a “regional grouping” of Russian and Belarusian troops to an unspecified theatre, Stano warned Minsk to “refrain” from further helping Moscow in Ukraine.

“We don’t have the details (on the joint deployment) but if this proceeds, this will be yet another escalation” of the “illegal war” in Ukraine," Stano said.“And this will not be unanswered from the side of the European Union,” he warned.

The EU has already imposed sanctions on Belarus for providing its territory for Russia to launch part of its invasion of Ukraine, and has said it stands ready to add to them if Minsk provides more help to Moscow.

The European bloc has imposed eight rounds of sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine, severely hitting its economy.

With inputs from agencies

Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .