Ukraine’s foreign minister, intelligence reveal reasons behind Russian mass missile attack
The mass missile strikes across Ukraine on the morning of Oct. 10 were due to Russian losses on the battlefield (Photo:REUTERS/Yaroslav Debelyi)
The massmissile strikes across Ukraine on the morning of Oct. 10 were due to Russian losses on the battlefield, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) stated on Oct. 10.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin claimed the attack was allegedly a response to Ukraine’s actions, including an explosion on the Kerch Strait Bridge in Crimea, which connects the peninsula to Russia. He accused Ukrainian special services of carrying out an attack on the bridge. Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the incident.
However, according to Kuleba, Putin ordered to launch the missile strikes over battlefield defeats.
“No, Putin was not ‘provoked’ to unleash missile terror by ‘Crimea Bridge,’” Kuleba tweeted.
“Russia had been constantly hitting Ukraine with missiles before the bridge, too. Putin is desperate because of battlefield defeats and uses missile terror to try to change the pace of war in his favor.”
The minister also urged commentators to stop saying that about Putin was “provoked” into conducting the missile strikes.
“He does not need anything to ‘provoke’ him in order to commit heinous crimes,” Kuleba said.
“I ask international media to stop shifting the blame on the victim of aggression by suggesting that Putin ‘responds’ or is being ‘provoked.’”
According to Ukrainian intelligence services, invading Russian forces were instructed to prepare massive missile strikes on Ukrainian civil infrastructure back on Oct. 2-3.
“The military units of strategic and longitudinal aviation were ordered to prepare for mass missile shelling,” HUR said on Telegram messenger.
“Critical civil infrastructure objects and central districts of densely populated Ukrainian cities were defined as targets.”
HUR also reported that seven Tu-160 strategic bombers were redeployed from the Olenya airfield (Murmansk Oblast, Russia) to the Engels airfield (Saratov Oblast, Russia) on Oct. 8 and equipped with Kh-101 cruise missiles. In addition, six carriers with 40 cruise missiles were brought out on an external raid in the occupied city of Sevastopol in Crimea.
According to HUR, Russia was looking to damage Ukraine’s power plants, sowing panic among Ukrainians, and intimidating European society.
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