Kyiv rocked by series of explosions in reported retaliation for Crimea bridge blast
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was hit by a number of explosions on Monday morning, as the Kremlin hit back in wake of the alleged sabotage of a bridge in Crimea.
The blasts just after 8am in Kyiv hit near its old town and government offices, days after Russia blamed Ukraine for a huge explosion on a bridge in annexed Crimea.
Vladimir Putin squarely blamed Kyiv for the blast in Crimea on a bridge which is the only direct route from Russian mainland into the peninsula.
In March, Russia abandoned its bid to take Kyiv and instead focussed on the east of Ukraine, annexing four regions in late September.
After Moscow called it “terrorism”, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had committed “merciless strikes on civilians” since the start of the war in February.
Today Putin is set to convene its Security Council. Moscow’s Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister, said “Russia can only respond to this crime by directly killing terrorists, as is the custom elsewhere in the world.”
“This is what Russian citizens expect,” according to Tass.
Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, shared an image of a burnt out car in the centre of Kyiv, to show the damage caused.