The Kremlin on Monday threatened the United States with “consequences”, the day after a Ukrainian strike in Crimea, carried out according to Moscow using an American missile, and accused the West of “killing Russian children”.
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“It is obvious that the participation of the United States in the fighting, its direct participation, which leads to the death of Russian citizens, must have consequences,” said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, calling on journalists to ask 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 intelligence data.
Americans and Europeans have recently begun to authorize Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike military targets on Russian territory used in particular to bomb Ukrainian territory.
Moscow has considered Crimea as its own since its annexation in 2014. This has been denounced by the overwhelming majority of the international community and is not recognized by Russia’s allies such as China.
Referring to retaliation, Vladimir Putin 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.
According to the Russian military, five ATACMS missiles were fired by Ukrainian forces on Sunday and four were reportedly destroyed in flight near Sevastopol, a port city hosting the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The local governor indicated that debris from the intercepted missiles 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 set up by Russia.
On Monday, Russian diplomacy summoned the American ambassador, Lynne Tracy, to Moscow to warn her that Russia was planning “retaliatory measures”, estimating that “the United States, which is waging a hybrid war against Russia, is become party to the conflict” in Ukraine.
“The ambassador was told that such actions by Washington, (…) authorizing strikes inside Russian territory, would not go unpunished. Retaliatory measures will follow,” insisted the ministry.
The day before, the Russian Defense Ministry had also promised a response, emphasizing that ATACMS targeting data was “captured by American specialists based on data from US satellite intelligence services”.
Russia has been carrying out deadly strikes against Ukraine on a daily basis for two years, demanding its de facto capitulation and denouncing Western support for kyiv.
For Ukraine, military targets in Crimea are legitimate and the peninsula itself must be retaken.
“Crimea is a vast (Russian) military camp and warehouse with hundreds of direct military targets that the Russians seek to cynically camouflage with their civilians,” accused an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhaïlo Podolyak.
