Russia has attacked military and infrastructure targets across Ukraine following Saturday’s bombing of the Crimea Bridge, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on a television show on Monday.
Putin threatened to respond further “severely” to “the extent of the threat to the Russian Federation, there is no doubt about it”, while accusing Kyiv of “terrorism”.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack on the Kerch Bridge, a vital link between mainland Russia and Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
Putin listed what he called a “terrorist” catalogue of what he called “the Kyiv regime” at a meeting of the Russian Security Council on Monday, accusing “Ukrainian special forces” of “vandalism on the Crimean bridge.”
He looked at a list of what he called acts of terrorism, including “terrorist shelling of civilian towns in Donbas for more than eight years”, as well as acts of terrorism allegedly targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure, including electricity installations, natural gas transport infrastructure facility and “an attempt to disrupt a portion of the Turkey Creek gas transportation system.”
He warned that in the event of further “acts of terrorism” there would be a severe response commensurate with the level of the threat to the Russian Federation.
More on explosions: The explosion early Saturday severely damaged parts of the Crimea Bridge, a road and rail link between the peninsula and the Russian Federation. Kyiv has yet to claim responsibility for the explosion of the massive 19-kilometer (about 12 miles) bridge that Putin opened in 2018. Ukraine’s response to the explosion was jubilant.