West using Ukraine to 'settle its problems' with Russia: Putin
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Putin calls Ukraine’s missile attack on the Russian city of Belgorod "a terrorist act."
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A still from a video released by the Russia Emergency Situations Ministry telegram channel shows damage from strikes in Belgorod, on Dec. 30. (AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian city of Belgorod a "terrorist act."
On Saturday, Ukraine executed an indiscriminate strike on the Russian city of Belgorod, utilizing cluster-mounted Vilkha missiles and shells from a Czech-made RM-70 Vampire multiple-launch rocket system.
The moment unguided Ukrainian MLRS rockets started killing civilians in the middle of Belgorod.
— What the media hides. (@narrative_hole) December 30, 2023
This is 100% an intentional attack against the population, and it is the true colours of Ukraine that our media isn’t too keen to share. pic.twitter.com/SZpX3sZr5N
The Russian Defense Ministry asserted that Ukraine orchestrated the attack to divert attention from its battlefield defeats and provoke Russian forces into similar actions.
In a meeting with Russian servicemen at a military hospital, Putin explained that this was a "terrorist act" and that there was "no other way to call it," due to the launch of "multiple launch rocket systems, which is, as you, servicepeople, know, a weapon to attack squares, and they used it to attack the city center where people walk ahead of the New Year."
He vowed that the Russian army would intensify strikes on Ukraine's military sites following the death of 24 people and the injury of over 100 from the Ukrainian strike that he called intentional. Putin expressed that Ukraine had fired "right in the city centre, where people were walking around, before New Year's Eve."
"We're going to intensify the strikes. No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that's for certain,"
he said, explaining that Russia would hit "military installations".
According to TASS, the Russian leader expressed that Moscow wanted to end the war but "only on our terms," detailing that he was being briefed Russia held a "strategic initiative" in the war.
“In any case that is how I am being briefed and I always insist: any offensive operations should be done after a defeat of the enemy."
He reiterated his accusation that the West is using Ukraine to "settle its problems" with Russia.
