Putin warns of more after Russia attacks Kyiv; calls Crimea blast 'terror attack'

Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Monday addressed a meeting with permanent members of the Security Council related to the recent explosion of the Kerch or Crimea Bridge. The President of the Russian Federation accused Ukraine of plotting what he described as a "terrorist attack."  Ukraine's recent acts of targetting the Russian infrastructure make it "simply impossible to leave crimes of this kind unanswered," asserted Putin, accusing Ukraine of covertly dismantling Moscow's critical infrastructure.

Putin stopped short of blaming the Ukrainians for the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage that runs under the Baltic Sea. Further, he noted that he had ordered missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as a retaliatory response to Kyiv's assaults on Russian facilities. "This morning, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Defense, and according to the plan of the Russian General Staff, a massive air, sea and land-based high-precision long-range weapon was launched against Ukrainian energy, military command and communications facilities," Putin admitted, referring to several missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. 

Russia's President Putin asserted, in the harshest tone yet, that if attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on Russian territory continue, "Russia’s responses will be tough and in scale that will correspond to the level of threats posed to us. No one should have any doubts about this."

Putin accuses Ukrainian special services of attack on Crimea Bridge

Putin told the council that he was updated about the blast at the Crimean bridge by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin, who probed the sabotage with the Federal Security Service (FSB). "The data of forensic and other examinations, as well as operational information, indicate that the explosion, arranged on October 8, is a terrorist act, a terrorist attack aimed at destroying Russia's civilian, critical infrastructure," Putin said, according to Kremlin's update on Telegram.

The perpetrators of the terrorist attack are the Ukrainian special services, Putin declared. He emphasized that Ukraine has long used terrorist acts, and murders of public figures, journalists, and scientists, both in Ukraine and in Russia. He accused Ukraine's Security Service of attacks on the cities of Donbas for more than eight years, and recently the artillery strikes on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

Putin accused the special services of Ukraine of carrying out three attacks on the Kursk nuclear power plant located in western Russia by compromising the high-voltage lines of the power plant. They also undermined one of the sections of the Turkish Stream gas transportation system, Putin noted. He indicated Ukraine's involvement in Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, saying, "Russia is not allowed to investigate the causes of explosions and destruction of international gas transmission systems passing under Baltic Sea. But we all know well the ultimate beneficiary of this crime."