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Ukraine vowed on Monday not to be deterred by a wave of deadly missile strikes from “terrorist state” Russia, as Moscow raised fears of further retaliation with the threat of more “serious” attacks.
11 people were killed and more than 80 wounded in Ukraine’s heaviest bombing in months, in response to a weekend bombing that damaged a key bridge from Russia to Moscow’s annexed Crimea peninsula .
“Ukraine cannot be intimidated. It can only be more united. Ukraine cannot be stopped,” President Vladimir Zelensky said in a defiant video, vowing to make the “battlefield more painful” for Russian troops.
Also read | Biden promises Zelensky air defense system after Russian missile attack
Kyiv said Russian troops fired more than 80 missiles at cities across the country, including the capital, and Russia used Iranian drones fired from neighboring Belarus, sparking panic and damaging energy facilities.
“There is no doubt,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address to his Security Council. “If attempts at terrorist attacks continue, Russia’s response will be severe.”
Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Nations denounced Russia at an emergency meeting to discuss Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
“Russia has proved once again that this is a terrorist state that must be contained in the strongest possible way,” Sergey Kislizia said hours after the attack.
Before the meeting, with tensions at boiling point, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the Russian attack as an “unacceptable escalation of war,” his spokesman said.
US President Joe Biden said the strike “demonstrates the utter brutality of Putin’s “illegal war”.
The White House said Biden pledged in his call with Zelensky to “continue to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to defend itself, including advanced air defenses.”
Zelensky called the call “productive” in a tweet, in which he called air defense a “number one priority” for Ukraine.
kill civilians
Language teacher Ksenia Ryazantseva, 39, told AFP she was awakened by the explosion.
“We saw smoke, then cars, and then we realized we didn’t have windows anymore,” she added. “There are no military targets here or anything like that. They are just killing civilians.”
Zelensky said the strike was aimed at destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, with regional officials across the country confirming widespread damage.
The Russian Defense Ministry also confirmed that it targeted energy, military command and communications facilities in Ukraine, claiming that the attack was successful and “reached their objectives.”
Kuleba said the attack was not “provoked” and was Moscow’s response to a series of embarrassing military losses in eastern Ukraine.
He wrote on social media: “Putin despairs of losing on the battlefield and uses missile terror to try to change the tempo of war in his favor.”
With Putin’s actions in focus, the United Nations will debate a draft resolution condemning what is widely seen in the West as Russia’s illegal occupation of Ukrainian land.
After Russia used its veto to block a similar proposal at a Security Council meeting on Sept. 30, the decision to refer the annexation issue to the UN General Assembly, where 193 UN member states each had one vote, none had a veto. .
Zelensky said he had spoken to French and German leaders and urged them to “increase the pressure on Russia.”
black smoke
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken pledged “unwavering economic, humanitarian and security assistance” to Ukraine, and Ukraine’s national police put the national death toll from the Russian attack at 11.
Ukrainian officials said central Kyiv was attacked and a university, museum and Philharmonic building were damaged.
An AFP reporter in Kyiv said a projectile landed near a playground and saw smoke rising from a large crater at the impact site. Trees and benches were scorched by the blast, and several ambulances were at the scene.
In the western city of Lviv, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said electricity and hot water services were cut off after critical infrastructure was bombed.
An AFP photographer there saw plumes of black smoke rising above the town’s skyline.
Moldova, in western Ukraine, said several Russian cruise missiles aimed at Ukraine had crossed its airspace and had summoned the Moscow envoy for an explanation.
A candidate for EU membership, the former Soviet state has a small breakaway region, Transnistria, which is armed and supported by Russia.
Crimea Bridge Attack
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, has claimed Ukraine is preparing to attack his country.
He said Russia and Belarus would “deploy” troops together, without specifying where.
The authoritarian leader also accused Ukraine of training Belarusian militants to carry out attacks at home, along with neighboring Poland and Lithuania.
The Ukrainian strike comes a day after Moscow blamed the Kyiv explosion for damaging the bridge linking Crimea and Russia, killing three people.
The explosion on the bridge – a symbol of the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea – sparked celebrations among Ukrainians, although officials in Kyiv did not directly claim responsibility.
The 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge is also an important supply chain between Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula.
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