Russia has said the United States is responsible for a Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the June 23 attack involved five long-range missiles, which the United States has supplied to Ukraine this year.
Four of the ATACMS missiles were shot down by Russian anti-aircraft missiles, according to the Defense Ministry, while the fifth exploded in mid-air.
Russia said four people, including two children, were killed and 151 others were injured when shrapnel fell near Sevastopol.
Sevastopol regional governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said five people were killed.
Russia illegally seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, and then appointed a local government, despite the territory still officially being part of Ukraine.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kiev has vowed to regain control of its territory and has attacked Russian military and naval targets in Crimea.
Russia’s Defense Ministry accused the US, claiming that American specialists had made the coordinates for the missile flight based on data collected by American satellites.
“Responsibility for the intentional missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol lies, above all, with Washington, which supplies Ukraine with these weapons, and the Kiev regime, from whose territory this attack was carried out,” said the Russian Ministry.
She vowed to respond to the attack, but did not give details.
Neither the United States nor Ukraine have commented on the attack, which occurred at a time when Russia continues to bombard Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and carry out attacks northeast of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, near the border with Russia.
Russian military bloggers slammed Russia’s Defense Ministry and the occupying authorities in Crimea after the missile attack near Sevastopol, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). /REL/
