President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Ukraine had carried out "terrorist acts" against Russia, accusing it of, among others, trying to "blow up" the TurkStream natural gas pipeline and pledged to react forcefully if they continued.
In televised remarks, Putin said Moscow had launched long-range missile attacks against Ukraine’s energy, military and communications infrastructure on Monday in retaliation for an attack on a vital bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula over the weekend.
"It is obvious that the Ukrainian secret services ordered, organized and carried out the terrorist attack aimed at destroying Russia's critical civilian infrastructure," Putin said of the Kerch Bridge explosion.
Ukrainian officials were exultant after the blast but Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.
"Through its actions, the Kyiv regime has put itself on a par with the most odious of international terrorist groups. It is simply impossible to leave crimes of this kind unanswered," Putin said, in opening remarks at a meeting of his powerful Security Council.
He also accused Ukraine of attempting to carry out an attack against a nuclear power plant in Russia and against one of the sections of the TurkStream pipeline that carries natural gas from Russia to Türkiye and further to Europe.
"They have committed a number of terrorist attacks and similar attempted crimes against electrical power facilities and gas transportation infrastructure in our country, including an attempt to blow up one of the sections of the TurkStream gas transmission system," he said.
"All this is proven by impartial evidence, including the testimony of the detained perpetrators of these terrorist attacks themselves," Putin noted.
Russia and Türkiye formally launched TurkStream in January 2020. The pipeline, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine as a transit route to Europe, carries Russian natural gas to Southern Europe through the Black Sea and Türkiye.
It has an annual capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) and consists of two 930-kilometer (577.88-mile) offshore lines and two separate onshore lines that are 142 and 70 kilometers long.
The first line with a capacity of 15.75 bcm is designated for supplies to Türkiye’s domestic customers. The downlink to Türkiye carries gas to several European countries, including Serbia and Hungary.
Cities across Ukraine were left without power or water and several were killed in Russian missile strikes on more than a dozen Ukrainian cities on Monday morning.
Cities across Ukraine were left without power or water and several people were killed in Russian missile strikes on more than a dozen Ukrainian cities on Monday morning. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: "Putin is a terrorist who talks with missiles."
Putin said Russia would respond "harshly" to any further attacks by Ukraine.
"If attempts continue to carry out terrorist acts on our territory, Russia’s responses will be harsh and in their scale will correspond to the level of threats created for the Russian Federation. No one should have any doubt about that," Putin warned.
He repeated, without providing evidence, his assertion that Ukraine and its NATO backers were behind still-unexplained ruptures to the Nord Stream gas pipelines which run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
He said Russia was not included in the investigation on the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, adding that everyone knows "the final beneficiary."
The strikes across Ukraine on Monday morning have threatened to further escalate the war that has been raging for more than seven months since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the rush hour attacks appeared to have been deliberately timed to kill people as well as to knock out electricity.
His prime minister said 11 major infrastructure targets were hit in eight regions, leaving swathes of the country with no power, water or heat.