Amid reports of multiple explosions across Ukraine including in its capital city Kyiv on Monday morning, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to “destroy” Ukrainians and wipe them “off the face of the earth”.
At least five people were killed in the attacks on Kyiv. Missile strikes were also reported from the cities of Kharkiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytsky, Dnipro and Ternopil.
The attacks come in the backdrop of the recent attacks on the Crimea Bridge that reportedly killed three people. Russia’s weekend attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia also resulted in civilian casualties, injuring at least 70 people. Acting Mayor of Zaporizhzhia Anatoly Kurtev said that in the attack, five houses were destroyed and apartment buildings were damaged,
Monday’s blasts were the first major attacks on the capital Kyiv since June. Video footage circulating on social media showed cars ablaze in the middle of a downtown street in Kyiv.
On Saturday a truck exploded on Kerch Bridge, causing the seven fuel tanks of a train heading to the Crimean Peninsula to catch fire. This led to the partial collapse of two spans of the road bridge. Shortly afterwards, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree on enhancing security measures for the Crimea bridge. In the decree, Putin also called for securing the energy bridge and the gas pipeline connecting the peninsula with mainland Russia.
