Moscow on Sunday blamed Ukraine for the fatal blast on the bridge that connects Crimea to Russia, as Ukraine protested against the latest deadly missile strike in its territory, which has killed at least 17 people.
“The authors, perpetrators and sponsors are the Ukrainian secret services,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said of Saturday’s Crimea bridge attack that he described as a “terrorist act”.
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Putin was speaking at an interview with the chief of the investigation committee that he established to investigate the attack, Russian news agencies reported.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, condemned the Russian missile strike on Sunday, which killed at least 17 victims including an infant — in Zaporizhzhia that was the most recent fatal attack on Zaporizhzhia, a southern Ukrainian city.
The attack also injured 89 people, among them 11 children, as per an official statement by the presidential office.
Zelensky said that Zelensky described “merciless strikes on peaceful people” and residential structures described as “absolute evil” perpetrated by “savages and terrorists”.
Officials from the region, including Oleksandr Starukh, posted photos of badly damaged apartment buildings on Telegram and announced that an emergency rescue mission was in the works to find victims buried under the rubble.
Russia officials also denounced on Sunday what they said was a surge in Ukrainian fire into its territory that had hit homes, administrative buildings and a monastery.