After Crimea Attack, Russia Threatens US

'Retaliatory measures will definitely follow,' Moscow says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 24, 2024 6:35 PM CDT
Russia Blames US for Deaths in Crimea Attack
Soldiers conduct live fire testing of the Army Tactical Missile System at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.   (John Hamilton/U.S. Army via AP, File)

Russia is blaming the US and threatening to retaliate for deaths in what it says was a Ukrainian attack on Crimea that used US-supplied missiles. Authorities in Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, said five people, including three children, were killed when missile fragments fell on a beach in Sevastopol. CNN reports that in a Telegram post, Russia's Ministry of Defense said the Sunday attack involved "US-supplied ATACMS operational-tactical missiles equipped with cluster warheads." The ministry said air defenses shot down four missiles but a fifth "deviated from its flight trajectory in the final section due to the impact of air defenses, with the warhead exploding in the air over the city."

Russia's foreign ministry summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Monday to protest the attack, the AP reports. Reuters reports that Tracy was told the US is "waging a hybrid war against Russia and has actually become a party to the conflict"—and that the attack will "not go unpunished. Retaliatory measures will definitely follow." Russia's defense ministry claimed Sunday that ATACMS missiles are all programmed by US specialists and guided by American satellites, the BBC reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that the "involvement of the United States, the direct involvement, as a result of which Russian civilians are killed, cannot be without consequences," the BBC reports. "Time will tell what these will be," he said. Though Russia regularly strikes civilian targets in Ukraine, Peskov described the Crimea attack as "barbaric." A White House National Security Council spokesperson said, "Ukraine makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its own military operations."
(More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)

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