In response to Russia’s accusation that it was responsible for the June 23 fatal attack on Crimea, the United States blamed Moscow for initiating the conflict and stated that Ukraine would use the weaponry it supplied to protect its territory from Russian aggression. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, five longer-range missiles that the US started sending to Ukraine this year were used in the June 23 strike close to Sevastopol. Additionally, it stated that US experts had used data from US satellites to determine the missiles’ flight coordinates. According to Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department, Moscow frequently makes “ridiculous, hyperbolic claims about responsibility that aren’t borne out by fact.”
US refutes Russia’s Crimea strike blame
He pointed out that the violent Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the March terrorist attack on a Moscow music hall that killed over 140 people, which Russia first attributed to Washington. “Any civilian casualties in this conflict are deeply regretted. Miller told reporters, “We give Ukraine weapons so it can protect its sovereign territory from armed aggression, including in Crimea, which is a part of Ukraine.” “Russia could stop this war today,” Russia claims that the attack on Crimea killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 others, but Miller claimed the US has no evaluation of the incident. According to Moscow, it was executed by Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) equipped with a cluster warhead and supplied by the United States. According to Major Charlie Dietz, a spokesman for the Pentagon, Ukraine “makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its military operations.” In response to charges that Washington was “waging a hybrid war against Russia and has become a party to the conflict,” Russia called US Ambassador Lynne Tracy to the Foreign Ministry earlier on June 24. Tracy was informed that the attack would not go unpunished.
Crimea attack sparks US-Russia dispute
“Of course, the involvement of the United States in the fighting, as a result of which peaceful Russians are dying, cannot but have consequences,” said Peskov. “Which ones exactly? Time will tell.” Peskov referenced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks on June 6 on the provision of conventional weapons to areas close to the United States and close to US allies, but he could not elaborate. In a similar vein to the West’s provision of military hardware and weaponry to assist Ukraine in defending itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Putin has also hinted that Russia may provide North Korea with armaments. The United Nations reports that over 11,000 Ukrainian citizens have been killed by Russian attacks since the invasion began. Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, claimed that five people were killed in the strike on Crimea, while the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that four people were killed when falling debris from the missiles struck them. Russian media and social media shared video footage of injured persons being evacuated and tourists fleeing to safety from a beach reportedly located on the city’s north side, which is a major tourist attraction and the location of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
US pushes back on Russia’s Crimea accusation
The Crimean Peninsula is still formally a part of Ukraine, but in 2014 Russia unlawfully grabbed it, annexed it, and established a local government. Key Russian military and naval facilities in Crimea have been targeted by Kyiv, which has pledged to regain control of its territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The assault coincided with Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, which is close to the Russian border. In the town of Pokrovsk, two Iskander-M missiles destroyed one house and damaged sixteen others, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that after the missile strike near Sevastopol, Russian military bloggers harshly denounced the Russian Defense Ministry and occupying authorities in Crimea.
Moscow’s Crimea claim rejected by Washington
According to the US research group, Russian officials were also chastised for “failing to detect and destroy all the missiles before they approached Sevastopol.” Russia has militarized Crimea since annexing it in 2014, and Ukraine has increased strikes against the Russian military there in recent months. Air bases, naval installations, training grounds, air defense, and rocket forces, as well as signals and communications infrastructure, are among the more than 200 Russian military locations in Crimea. On June 22, a Russian bomb struck an apartment building, killing at least two individuals and injuring over fifty. One person was killed by ongoing airstrikes on the city on June 23. On June 24, Russian forces also launched an attack on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk area, leaving 34 people injured and at least four dead.
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