Russia has accused Ukraine of planning a heavy attack with long-range United States and British missiles on annexed Crimea while warning that it would retaliate if that happened.
Speaking at a meeting of military officials on Tuesday evening, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu declared that Moscow possesses information that Ukraine plans to strike Crimea with US-supplied HIMARS long-range rocket systems and British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
‘The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and would entail immediate strikes on decision-making centres in Ukraine,’ Shoigu said.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and considers it to be outside the scope of its invasion – which is focused in eastern and southern Ukraine, where Ukraine is fighting to retake territory.
Kyiv, which says it is battling for its survival in a war of colonial conquest, said it wants to reclaim all of its territory, including Crimea, the home of Russia’s Black Sea naval base.
Shoigu said Ukraine’s armed forces carried out 263 attacks on Russian positions since June 4, referring to what Moscow regards as the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
‘Thanks to the smart and selfless actions of our units, all of them [the attacks] have been repelled. The enemy has not accomplished its goals,’ Shoigu said.
Ukraine said it has recaptured eight villages in the early stages of its counterattack, and a defence official promised Kyiv’s “biggest blow” lay ahead despite tough resistance from Moscow’s troops.
“At this time, our soldiers in the south and east are actively destroying the enemy, physically cleansing Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message.
‘A defence against terror means destroying terrorists. And it is a guarantee that the state of evil will never have the opportunity to bring evil to Ukraine.