Kyiv – Several missiles hit Ukraine during rush hour on Monday morning, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure in an apparent revenge after President Vladimir Putin declared an explosion on the bridge to Crimea to be a terrorist attack.
Cruise missiles tore into busy intersections, parks and tourist sites in the centre of downtown Kyiv, with an intensity unseen even when Russian forces attempted to capture the capital early in the war.
A huge crater gaped next to a children's playground in a central Kyiv park. Image - Reuters
Explosions were also reported in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in Ukraine's west, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the rush hour attacks appeared to have been deliberately timed to kill people.
More volleys of missiles struck the capital again later in the morning. Pedestrians huddled for shelter at the entrance of Metro stations and inside parking garages.
People receive medical treatment at the scene of Russian shelling, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. Image-AP
By mid-morning, Ukraine's defence ministry said Russia had fired 75 cruise missiles, and Ukraine's air defences had shot down 41 of them. Kyiv city police said at least five people had been killed and 12 wounded in the capital.
There was no immediate word from Moscow on what it was targeting. Russia as usual, denies deliberately targeting civilians.
The strikes came two days after an explosion damaged the only bridge over the Kerch Strait to the Crimea peninsula, which Putin on Sunday called "an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure".
"This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services," he said in a video on the Kremlin's Telegram channel.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the blast on the bridge but has celebrated it. Senior Russian officials demanded a swift response from the Kremlin ahead of a meeting of Putin's security council on Monday.
Commentators on Russian television have increasingly been calling for massive retaliation against Ukraine, with the military leadership facing public criticism for the first time as Russian forces have been beaten back on the battlefield.
-Reuters