Deadly Russian missile strikes target Ukrainian cities including capital
LA TimesRussian President Vladimir Putin said the attacks were in retaliation for the bombing of a bridge linking Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking soon after deadly cruise missile and “kamikaze” drone strikes hit at least 10 Ukrainian cities, indicated the attacks came in vengeance for a weekend blast that damaged a bridge connecting the occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia. After blasts set rush-hour commuter cars ablaze in the heart of the capital, Kyiv, and carved a huge crater next to a children’s playground in a city-center park, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Russia would not succeed in attempts to “wipe us off the face of the Earth.” Ukrainian officials immediately voiced new calls for more sophisticated defensive and offensive weapons systems. Biden renewed a call on Russia to withdraw all of its forces from Ukraine, calling the attacks a mark of “the utter brutality of Mr. Putin’s illegal war.” “These attacks only further reinforce our commitment to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes,” he said. “Ukraine existed before this enemy appeared,” he said, “and Ukraine will exist after it.” People injured in Russian attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, receive medical treatment.