Putin threatens further missile attacks on Ukraine if ‘terrorist acts’ continue
- The death toll continues to climb across Ukraine as a result of ‘revenge’ strikes by Russia on what Putin calls ‘energy, command and communication targets’
- Ukraine’s defence ministry said Russia had fired 81 cruise missiles, and Ukraine’s air defences had shot down 43 of them by midmorning on Monday
Air raid sirens wailed in Kyiv again on Monday afternoon following Russian missile strikes earlier in the day, witnesses said.
The death toll continued to climb and the national police service said in a statement on Facebook on Monday that work was under way to collect evidence of “Russian atrocities”.
Russia had fired cruise missiles at cities across Ukraine during rush hour on Monday morning, killing civilians and knocking out power and heat, in what President Vladimir Putin declared to be revenge for Ukrainian attacks including on a bridge to Crimea.
The missiles tore into busy intersections, parks and tourist sites in the centre of downtown Kyiv with an intensity not seen since Russian forces tried to capture the capital early in the war.
Explosions were also reported in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in Western Ukraine, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east. Ukrainian officials said at least 10 people were killed and scores injured, and swathes of the country left without power.
At a meeting of his Security Council on Monday, Putin threatened further missile attacks on Ukraine.
