Kremlin threatens US with 'consequences' after Ukrainian strike in Crimea

Photo: Roman Pilipey Agence France-Presse At least four civilians were killed in a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, an area in the Donetsk region where Russian assaults are increasing.

France Media Agency in Moscow

Published yesterday at 12:18 p.m.

• Europe

Russia on Monday threatened the United States with reprisals, accusing them of “killing Russian children”, the day after a Ukrainian strike in Crimea carried out according to it using American missiles, a new escalation between the two rivals around of Ukraine.

Russia considers that Washington has become a party to the conflict by authorizing kyiv to use long-range missiles against Russian regions and the Crimea peninsula. Ukrainian territory that Moscow annexed in 2014 and which serves as a rear base for the Russian army.

“It is obvious that the participation of the United States in the fighting, its participation direct action, which leads to the death of Russian citizens, must have consequences,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, calling on journalists to ask in Europe and the United States “why their governments are killing Russian children.”

According to Moscow, long-range ATACMS missile strikes, like Sunday's in Russian-annexed Ukrainian Crimea, cannot be carried out by Ukraine alone because they require American specialists, technology and data.

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The West recently began to authorize kyiv to use some of its weapons to strike military sites on Russian territory used to bomb Ukraine.

Ambassador summoned

Evoking reprisals, Vladimir Putin had threatened this month to deliver equivalent weapons to enemies of the West so that they could attack their interests in other regions of the world.

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According to the Russian military, five ATACMS missiles were fired by Ukrainian forces on Sunday and four were reportedly destroyed in flight near the port city of Sevastopol.

The local governor indicated that debris from the intercepted projectiles had fallen “on coastal areas.” At least four deaths were recorded, including two children, and more than 150 people were injured, according to local authorities installed by Russia.

On Monday, Russian diplomacy summoned the American ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, to warn her that Russia was planning “retaliatory measures,” considering that “the United States […] has become a party to the conflict” in Ukraine.

“The ambassador was told that such actions by Washington, […] authorizing strikes inside Russian territory, would not go unpunished,” the ministry insisted.

The day before, the Russian Defense Ministry had also promised a response, stressing that the ATACMS targeting data was necessarily “captured by American specialists” based on satellite intelligence.

Russia has been carrying out deadly strikes against Ukraine from its territory every day for more than two years. years.

For Ukraine, military targets in Crimea and Russian territory are legitimate, especially at a time when Ukrainian forces, which are suffering from a shortage of men and weapons, are facing increased pressure from the Russian army on the front.

“Crimea is a vast [Russian] military camp and warehouse with hundreds of direct military targets,” accused an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhailo Podoliak.

Eight civilians killed

Ukraine is suffering daily Russian strikes, which have notably ravaged its energy infrastructure, forcing power cuts across the country to cope with electricity shortages. At least eight civilians died on Monday.

According to Ukrainian authorities, at least four were killed and 40 others injured in Ukraine in a Russian missile strike on the town of Pokrovsk, an area in the Donetsk region (east) where Russian assaults are increasing.

A woman was also killed in Toretsk, an area under Ukrainian control in the east which is also experiencing an increase in attacks. And in the Kherson region (south), a 40-year-old man was killed by shelling in the town of Stepanivka, according to kyiv.

In the northeast , two people died after a “car hit an anti-tank mine,” according to Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegoubov.

A Russian missile also struck in the morning a warehouse in Odessa, a strategic Black Sea port in southern Ukraine, leaving three injured.

Finally, the Ukrainian general staff accused Russia on Monday of intensifying its attacks using tear gas used illegally during a conflict.

The Ukrainian army says it “documented 715 cases” in May, “271 cases more than in April”, denouncing a “violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Storage and of the use of chemical weapons and on their destruction” (CIAC).

The CIAC prohibits the use of irritant gases as a “means of war”, not authorizing them only for maintaining order.