Russia launched a fresh barrage of missile strikes against Ukraine on Monday, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that such strikes had become "inevitable" in the war.
Russia began carrying out a series of attacks across Ukraine in October after a strike damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge, which connects Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula and is also a key supply route for Putin's troops. Though Ukraine did not formally take responsibility for the explosion, top Ukrainian officials celebrated the development on social media. Additionally, Putin blamed the Kerch Strait Bridge strike on Ukraine, calling it an act of "terrorism," and vowed to respond.
He followed through on that promise within days of the damage to the bridge. Russia has launched several additional waves of strikes on Ukraine since then, including targeting areas with civilian populations and critical infrastructure.
Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a phone conversation on Friday that Russia had refrained from launching missile strikes on certain Ukrainian targets for a period of time in the war, "but now such measures have become an unavoidable and inevitable response to Kyiv's provocative attacks against Russia's civilian infrastructure, including the Crimean bridge and energy facilities," according to a Kremlin release.
The newest strikes on Monday, of which a Ukrainian air force spokesman said there could be several waves, hit buildings and homes, disrupted power and caused civilian casualties, the Associated Press reported. The full extent of the damage and casualties was not immediately known.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said on Telegram that "two infrastructure objects were damaged" as a result of the Russian strikes, but did not provide further information on exactly which facilities or the extent of the damage. Tymoshenko wrote in another post that two people had died and three others were injured in the village of Novosofivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A. Brink, decried the new strikes in a Twitter thread Monday, saying that they were part of Russia's "cruel strategy" to "bring its war into every Ukrainian home."
"To our Ukrainian friends, we stand with you and will continue to provide the air defense and support for energy infrastructure you need to prevail," Brink added in a subsequent tweet.
Earlier Monday, explosions were reported at two Russian air bases, an airfield near the city of Ryazan and another base in the Saratov region. Ukraine did not directly claim responsibility for the explosions and Russian officials did not immediately comment on a potential cause.
However, a Ukrainian official appeared to mock Russia on social media in light of the air base explosions.
The Earth is round – discovery made by Galileo. Astronomy was not studied in Kremlin, giving preference to court astrologers. If it was, they would know: if something is launched into other countries’ airspace, sooner or later unknown flying objects will return to departure point
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) December 5, 2022
"The Earth is round – discovery made by Galileo. Astronomy was not studied in Kremlin, giving preference to court astrologers," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. "If it was, they would know: if something is launched into other countries' airspace, sooner or later unknown flying objects will return to departure point."
Newsweek reached out to Russia's Defense Ministry for comment.
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Zoe Strozewski is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and global politics. Zoe ... Read more
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