Missiles strike Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities after hit on bridge

Missiles struck Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities early Monday, two days after an attack on a key bridge to Crimea that Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed on Ukraine.

“They are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the Earth,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on his Telegram channel, urging people to stay in bomb shelters. “Unfortunately there are dead and wounded.”

At least 10 explosions were reported in Kyiv in what appeared to be the most intense barrage of attacks on the Ukrainian capital since Putin ordered the February 24 invasion. Five people were killed and 12 wounded in the centre of the city, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on his Telegram channel.

Russian forces continued a missile assault on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said, and there were reports of explosions in Odesa, Dnipro and Lviv in Ukraine’s far west, as air-raid alerts sounded in every region of the country except occupied Crimea.

The assault comes after Putin accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out an explosion Saturday that damaged a road and rail bridge connecting Crimea across the Kerch Strait to Russia. Ukraine hasn’t officially claimed responsibility for the blast on the multibillion-dollar span that was a signature project for Putin and intended to symbolise Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.

The strikes also come after Russia’s defence ministry announced the appointment of a new commander of its invasion forces in Ukraine, Air Force Gen Sergei Surovikin. In the past he led Russian forces in Syria, where Kremlin troops carried out a bombardment campaign that destroyed much of Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city.

Air defence

The missile strikes hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv and there are casualties, mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a statement.

Air defence in Lviv “is working” the city’s mayor, Andriy Sadoviy, said on Telegram, adding that schools have moved to online study.

Pro-Kremlin voices who had urged Putin to respond harshly to the Crimea bridge explosion welcomed the strikes.

“The place of the Devil is burnt with fire,” Sergei Markov, a political consultant to the presidential staff, said Monday on Telegram, where he posted video footage of the bombardment of central Kyiv.

Russian authorities have said they have resumed rail services on the bridge that stretches for 19km across the Kerch Strait.

The link is an important route for the Kremlin to resupply its forces in Crimea and in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, where Russian troops are facing a Ukrainian military counteroffensive.

Putin plans to hold a regular meeting of his security council in Moscow on Monday.

He blamed “Ukraine’s secret services” for the attack at a weekend meeting with the head of Russia’s investigative commission, Alexander Bastrykin, according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin website.

Bloomberg News. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com