KYIV, OTHER CITIES HIT AS PUTIN ORDERS ‘HARSH RESPONSE’ TO CRIMEA BRIDGE ATTACK

KYIV - Russia fired cruise missiles at cities across Ukraine during rush hour early yesterday, killing civilians and knocking out power and heat, in what President Vladimir Putin declared to be revenge for Ukrainian attacks including on a bridge to Crimea.

The missiles tore into busy intersections, parks and tourist sites in the centre of downtown Kyiv with an intensity not seen even when Russian forces attempted to capture the capital early in the war.

Explosions were also reported in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in western Ukraine, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east.

In a televised address, Putin said he had ordered “massive” long-range strikes against Ukrainian energy, command and communication targets, using missiles fired from air, sea and land, in response to what he described as terrorist attacks, including Saturday’s explosion at the Kerch Strait bridge.

“The Kyiv regime, with its actions, has put itself on the same level as international terrorist organisations. With the most odious groups. To leave such acts without a response is simply impossible,” Putin said.

The Kremlin was humiliated on Saturday when an explosion damaged the only bridge over the Kerch Strait linking Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, to Russia proper. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the blast on the bridge but has celebrated it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday’s rush hour attacks were deliberately timed to kill people as well as to knock out Ukraine’s power grid. His prime minister said 11 major infrastructure targets were hit in eight regions, leaving swaths of the country with no power, water or heat.

Russia has faced major setbacks on the battlefield since the start of September, with Ukrainian forces bursting through front lines and recapturing territory.

Putin responded to the losses by ordering a mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists, proclaiming the annexation of occupied territory and threatening