Russia stated this Sunday that the United States “it’s responsible” of a Ukrainian attack against the Crimean peninsula, which was carried out “with five missiles supplied by Washington” and ““caused the death of at least five people.” (including three children), in addition to injuring one hundred and twenty-four others. The Russian Ministry of Defense, through a message from its head, Andrei Belousóv, stated that four of the missiles of the Atacms system supplied by the United States, and equipped with cluster warheads, were shot down by the anti-aircraft defense and that the ammunition a fifth missile detonated in mid-air.
He also indicated that American specialists set the flight coordinates of the missiles based on information from their spy satellites, which means that Washington is directly responsible. “Responsibility for the deliberate missile attack against the civilian population of Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, and with the Kiev regime, from whose territory this attack was carried out,” the ministry stated.
The United States began supplying Ukraine with long-range Atacms missiles, which cover distances of up to 300 kilometers, earlier this year. Images from Russian state television showed people fleeing a beach and some people being carried away on deck chairs. Russian authorities in Crimea said missile fragments had fallen just after noon near a beach on the northern side of the city of Sevastopol, where locals were vacationing.
At least 124 people were injured, according to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko. Among the injured are twenty-seven children, five of whom are in serious condition, according to authorities. The Russian Defense Ministry assured that Moscow will respond to the attack, without giving further details. The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has been “in constant contact with the military” since the attack on Sevastopol. Russia arbitrarily annexed Crimea in 2014 and now considers the Black Sea peninsula an integral part of its territory, although most of the world still considers it Ukrainian.
It could change its nuclear doctrine
Russia, the world’s largest nuclear power, could reduce the decision-making time stipulated in official policy for the use of nuclear weapons if Moscow believes threats are increasing, the chairman of parliament’s defense committee said. The war in Ukraine has sparked the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, and President Vladimir Putin said last month that Russia could change its official nuclear doctrine that sets out the conditions under which missiles could be used. such weapons.
In recent hours, Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Defense Committee of the Russian lower house of parliament, was quoted by the state news agency RIA as saying that if threats increased, then the decision-making time for the use of such weapons it could change. “If we see that the challenges and threats are increasing, it means that we can correct something in (the doctrine) regarding the timing of the use of nuclear weapons and the decision to make this use,” RIA quoted Kartapolov as saying.
Kartapolov, who once commanded Russian forces in Syria and now serves as a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party, added that it was too early to talk about specific changes to nuclear doctrine. Russia’s 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out when its president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly, in response to an attack with nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction or conventional weapons “when the very existence of the state is threatened” .
Russia and the United States are by far the largest nuclear powers in the world, with about 88% of the world’s nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists, opens a new tab. Both are modernizing their nuclear arsenals, while China is rapidly increasing its nuclear arsenal.
Putin said this month that Russia had no need to use nuclear weapons to secure victory in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s strongest signal yet that Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II will not escalate into a nuclear war.
Ukrainian drones attacked facilities near Zaporizhzhia
Russian-installed officials said that Ukrainian drone attacks knocked out two electrical substations in Enerhodar, the city that serves the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (occupied by Russia since the beginning of the invasion), cutting off power to most of its residents. However, an official at the Zaporizhia plant, the largest in Europe, which has six reactors, declared that it had not been affected by the military action.
On Saturday morning, the Russian management of the plant said on its official Telegram channel that some “infrastructure facilities,” including the transportation department and the printing press, suffered disruptions following the attacks. They affirmed that nuclear security measures remain fully operational. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the attacks exposed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disregard for nuclear security and vowed that Moscow would take action to stop the assaults.
See alsoWhat the strategic partnership agreement between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un means “In view of the complete inability of the Zelensky regime to negotiate anything, our country will take all necessary measures to deny the Kiev regime all means to carry out such attacks,” Zakharova said on the ministry’s website. Russian troops seized the plant in the first days of the February 2022 invasion, and Moscow and kyiv have since accused each other of endangering security around it. At the moment it does not produce electricity.
Putin also accuses the West of attack in Dagestan
Gunmen opened fire on a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing six police officers and wounding 12, Russian news agencies in the region reported. citing the Ministry of the Interior. A local religious organization in the Muslim-majority region put the death toll at nine, including seven police officers.
In relation to this incident, and as expected, Russian President Vladimir Putin also accused the West and Ukraine of provoking unrest within Russian territory. Apart from this, the Russian Ministry of the Interior, cited by Russian agencies, stated that four armed men were killed during the incidents. A local official said another had been killed during a shooting at a church in Makhachkala, the region’s main administrative center. The death of an Orthodox priest was also reported.
In the 2000s, Dagestan was hit by an Islamist insurgency from neighboring Chechnya and Russian security forces moved aggressively to combat extremists in the region. The agencies reported exchanges of fire in central Makhachkala, a region with a long coastline on the Caspian Sea.
See alsoWhat is behind Vladimir Putin’s visit to his ally Kim Jong-un? An unofficial channel on the Telegram messaging app, Mash, said police were preparing to storm a building where armed men had taken refuge in Derbent, about 125 kilometers further south. Gunmen attacked a synagogue and church in Derbent, home of an ancient Jewish community and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the Ministry of the Interior, both the synagogue and the church were on fire.
The head of Dagestan’s regional government vowed to harshly punish “whoever is behind these disgusting actions.” In Israel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that the Derbent synagogue had been set on fire and that shots had been fired at a second synagogue in Makhachkala. The statement said it was believed there were no worshipers in the synagogue at the time.
Russian authorities have targeted Muslim militant elements in previous incidents in the region. In October, after the outbreak of war in Gaza, protesters carrying Palestinian flags broke down glass doors and rampaged through Makhachkala airport in search of Jewish passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv.
