Kyiv Under Siege: Russia Hits Back After Crimea Bridge Blast

Moscow, after the Crimea bridge explosion on Saturday, has launched a missile attack on Kyiv among other cities in Ukraine.

While the Ukrainian officials claimed that seventy-five missiles had been launched, Moscow accused Kyiv of the explosion on the bridge that connects Crimea to other parts of Russia. 

This was the first missile attack on Kyiv since June as loud explosions were reported resulting in people fleeing to bomb shelters. Other cities including Lviv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolayiv were also hit. Explosions were also reported in the Black Sea port of Odesa, resulting in air raid alerts across most of Ukraine. 

As per early reports, five people had been killed, but the number of casualties is expected to rise, as first responders work through the emergencies later today.

Ukraine claimed that the anti-missile defences had managed to shoot down forty-one missiles. Valeri Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces in Ukraine made the claim on Telegram. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of attacking critical civilian infrastructure, as explosions were also reported around a children’s playground.

After the Crimea bridge blast, Zelenskyy’s party announced that it was the illegal Russian construction that was beginning to catch fire and that because it was explosive, it would have exploded sooner or later. 

He ended his note on Telegram by saying "and this is just the beginning," stopping short of accepting responsibility for the attack.

The Ukrainian postal services joined in too, announcing that it was issuing postal stamps to celebrate the fall of the bridge.

This is after the postal service commemorated the sinking of Moskva, one of Russia’s flagship cruisers. 

The impact of the explosion was felt in Moscow as well. Only a few hours after the explosion, the Russian defence ministry reportedly promoted Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s air force chief, as the primary commander of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. 

As per reports, the Russian attack has dented the power infrastructure in Ukraine. Total loss of power is being reported in Lviv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Ternopil, and Lutsk.