Series of Strikes on Ukraine Expedited by Bridge Blast, Russia Says

Coordinated attacks on Ukrainian cities on Monday were part of "retaliatory measures" following the explosion on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea, a Russian official has said.

The strikes, targeting at least 14 Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, were aimed at taking out "decision-making centers," Alexey Chepa, a member of the Russian State Duma, told Russia's state-run news outlet Lenta.

"We warned a few months ago that we would strike at the decision-making centers, but something held us back from fulfilling these promises. Obviously, the time has come," he said.

"The time has come early, of course. Of course, it did [the explosion on the Crimean bridge]. If such miscalculations, such mistakes are made, perhaps someone should be held accountable for this. We need to take some retaliatory measures," the deputy said.

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukrainian secret services for the explosion, which he described as a "terrorist act."

Kyiv hasn't claimed responsibility for the strike on the bridge over the Kerch Strait, the only bridge connecting the annexed Crimean Peninsula with Russia.

The explosion damaged a key supply route for Russia's forces amid the Kremlin's flagging war effort in Ukraine.

Putin said Monday that the shelling of Ukrainian cities that morning was a response to the explosion on the Crimean bridge. He vowed further response should "attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue."

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Monday that Russia had launched 83 missiles, of which, 45 were shot down by air defenses.

Explosions were reported in Kyiv, as well as in the southern Kharkiv region, where Ukraine conducted a successful counteroffensive in September, Dnipro in central Ukraine, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, a city in the Sumy region, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Obukhiv, Kryvyi Rih, and in Poltava and Vinnytsia.

Some of the explosions were the work of Ukraine's air defenses, the authorities said.

Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's prime minister, said on Facebook that at least 11 important infrastructure facilities in eight regions and Kyiv had been damaged and that some regions were without power.

Hours before the attacks on Ukrainian cities, Russia's Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said Russia would respond to the blast on the Kerch Bridge "by directly killing terrorists."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reacting to the Russian attacks, said in a video address that Putin's forces have two targets—Ukrainian energy facilities, and people.

"They want panic and chaos, they want to destroy our energy system. They are hopeless. The second target is people. Such a time and such goals were specially chosen in order to cause as much damage as possible," he said in his video message.

Zelensky also said he asked the chancellor of Germany, which currently chairs the G7, to urgently convene a meeting of the group due to the Russian strikes.

Newsweek reached out to Russian and Ukrainian authorities for comment.

Update 10/10/22, 7:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated with remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin.