Following the recent heavy backlash that came with the terrible bombing on some civilian centres in Ukraine, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has insisted that his troops did not launch the attack that killed many civilians who had been taking shelter at a shopping centre in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, Putin denied that Moscow was behind the strike.
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“The Russian army does not attack any civilian site. We don’t have the need for this,” he said, according to CNN.
“We have every capability to detect specific locations; and thanks to our high-precious long-range weapons we are achieving our goals.”
The Russian leader spoke after a meeting of the “Caspian five” leaders —Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — in Ashgabat.
Earlier, the Russian ministry of defence had blamed “the detonation of stored ammunition for Western weapons” for causing a fire in what it described as a “non-functioning” neighboring shopping mall.
The Prime Minister of UK, Boris Johnson on Wednesday has also warned World leaders against boycotting a G20 summit which is slated to hold in Indonesia in November if Vladimir Putin attends, stressing that doing so would hand a ‘propaganda opportunity to others’.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Indonesia is expected to hold a rotating presidency of the G20 this year and in recent times, Jakarta has come under Western pressure to exclude Russia’s president from the annual gathering after announcing in April he had been invited.
‘I would be absolutely amazed if Putin goes in person. He’s a pariah figure,’ Johnson told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Madrid.
‘I don’t think he will go. The question is do we as Western countries vacate our seats at the G20 and leave the whole argument to China, to Russia?’ he added.