In Wake of Loss at Sea, Kremlin Ramps Up Strikes Across Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine have begun using escalatory language that echoes the war of words familiar to those who have followed the more heated episodes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Stung by the loss this week of its Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, and indignant over alleged Ukrainian aggression inside Russian territory, Russia’s military command warned of renewed missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital. Officials in Moscow said they were targeting military sites.“The number and the scale of missile attacks on objects in Kyiv will be ramped up in response to the Kyiv nationalist regime committing any terrorist attacks or diversions on the Russian territory,” the Russian defense ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said.Ukraine, for its part, publicly acknowledged that Russia would seek revenge after the sinking of the Moskva, which Kyiv claimed to have hit with a pair of Neptune missiles. “The Moskva cruiser strike hit not only the ship itself: it hit the enemy’s imperial ambitions. We are all aware that we will not be forgiven for this,” a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military forces, Natalia Gumeniuk, said during a briefing.Russian forces resumed scattered attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine, and beyond Saturday, an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the entire country remains under threat despite Russia’s pivot toward mounting a new offensive in the east.A factory outside Kyiv that produced the missiles allegedly used to the Moskva warship was partly destroyed in Russian strikes just ahead of Ms. Gumeniuk’s briefing, the Agence France-Presse reported.“We are aware that attacks against us will intensify and that the enemy will take revenge. We understand this,” Ms. Gumeniuk added, and cited ongoing strikes on cities in the south of Ukraine, Odessa and Mykolaiv.The verbiage is reminiscent of that often employed in Middle Eastern conflicts, and has not been heard on the European continent in recent memory. Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky, added fuel to this fire by saying the world should “be ready” for the possibility of Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons or chemical weapons in his war on Ukraine. Those comments, made in English, came in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. In the meantime, each day of late has brought new discoveries of civilian victims of a war that has shattered European security. In the Kyiv region alone, Ukrainian authorities have reported finding the bodies of more than 900 civilians, most shot dead, since Russian troops retreated two weeks ago.There was an explosion believed to be caused by a missile Saturday near an outdoor market in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to firefighters and AP journalists at the scene. One person was killed and at least 18 people were wounded, according to rescue workers. Explosions were also reported near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.In the capital, smoke rose early Saturday as Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike on the Darnytski district. One person was killed and several more were wounded, he said. The mayor advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to return.“Our air defense forces are doing everything they can to protect us, but the enemy is insidious and ruthless,” Mr. Klitschko said.Despite a growing list of military humiliations, the Russian military appears increasingly dug in. For “52 nights, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians hear the terrible howls of sirens and missiles. No one knows where they will fall and who will kill,” a key advisor to President Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said via Twitter on Saturday. “But we know that [the Kremlin] is bombing our cities every night. To scare and kill. Good that the rest of Europe does not hear the scary sounds.”

In Wake of Loss at Sea, Kremlin Ramps Up Strikes Across Ukraine

More from the New York Sun

Airports Promote Food Banks, Gift Cards for Unpaid TSA Workers as Spring Break Begins

Michigan Synagogue Attacker Is Naturalized Citizen Whose Hezbollah-Linked Relatives Died in Lebanon Airstrike

Religious Man Sues Los Angeles County for Not Letting Him Work From Home in June To Avoid ‘Pride’ Flag, Celebrations

More from the New York Sun

Airports Promote Food Banks, Gift Cards for Unpaid TSA Workers as Spring Break Begins

Michigan Synagogue Attacker Is Naturalized Citizen Whose Hezbollah-Linked Relatives Died in Lebanon Airstrike

Religious Man Sues Los Angeles County for Not Letting Him Work From Home in June To Avoid ‘Pride’ Flag, Celebrations

Lew Lehrman: Prophet of Honest Money

Jack Schlossberg’s Congressional Hopes Imperiled as Bloomberg Endorses Nadler Protégé, Micah Lasher

Blue States, With Taxes on High Earners, Commit Political and Economic Suicide

Frustrated Fani Willis Denounces GOP ‘Clown Show’ Even as She Suffers Setback in Effort To Avoid Paying Trump’s Legal Bills

Democrats’ Calls To Tax the Rich Overlook Urgent Need To Tame Reckless Government Overspending