Ukraine war: Russia accuses USA and promises reaction to victims in Crimea

Russia has blamed the United States for the Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol in occupied Crimea on Sunday and vowed “consequences.” Officials said four people were killed, including two children.

About 150 others were injured in the attack when rocket debris fell on a nearby beach.

The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the missiles used by Ukraine were ATACMS missiles made in the United States and claimed that they were programmed by US specialists.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack as “barbaric” and accused the US of “killing Russian children”.

He referred to statements by President Vladimir Putin, who recently announced that action would be taken against countries that supply Ukraine with weapons.

Moscow said Sunday’s deaths and injuries were caused by falling debris after Ukrainian air defenses intercepted five missiles carrying cluster warheads in Crimea.

Footage from Russian state television showed chaos on the beach in the Uchkuyevka area, where people fled falling debris and some injured people were carried away on sun loungers.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that all ATACMS missiles would be programmed by US specialists and controlled by American satellites.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated this claim at a meeting in Minsk on Monday, saying the system “cannot be deployed without the direct participation of the American military, including satellite capabilities.”

The United States has been supplying Ukraine with ATACMS missiles for over a year. The system enables the Ukrainian armed forces to attack targets up to 300 kilometers away, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Moscow illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and only a handful of countries recognize the peninsula as Russian territory, so it is not subject to US demands that Ukraine refrain from attacking Russian territory with weapons supplied by Washington.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council told the BBC: “Ukraine makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its own military operations.”

But Mr Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Monday that “the involvement of the United States, the direct involvement, as a result of which Russian civilians are being killed, cannot remain without consequences.”

“Time will tell what that will be,” he added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Monday. Lavrov claimed that there was “no doubt about US involvement in the attack.”

Moscow has repeatedly threatened to attack countries that supply Ukraine with weapons, claiming they are legitimate military targets.

“We know very well who is behind it,” Peskov told reporters on Monday.

“(Mr Putin) spoke just last week about who is aiming these technologically extremely complex missiles at targets, who is responsible for these launches. They are not Ukrainians.”

Earlier this month, Mr Putin reiterated this threat at a meeting with international news agencies.

“If someone thinks it is possible to deliver such weapons to a war zone to attack our territory and cause us problems, why do we not have the right to deliver weapons of the same class to regions of the world where there could be attacks on sensitive facilities of these (Western) countries?” he asked.

“That means the answer may be asymmetric. We will think about it,” he added.

Ukrainian government officials defended the attack and described Crimea as a legitimate target.

Mykhailo Podoliak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the peninsula was effectively “a large military camp” containing “hundreds of direct military targets that the Russians are cynically trying to hide and cover up with their own civilians.”

According to the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, at least 10,000 civilians have been killed since the Russian invasion in February 2022. The actual number is likely to be much higher, according to official figures.