Russia bombs Ukraine cities: What is happening, and why
The Ukraine bombing is being seen as Putin's revenge attack for an explosion on a bridge connecting Russia and Crimea on October 9.
Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the bridge strike, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has called a “terrorist attack”. Meanwhile, on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called Putin “a terrorist who talks with missiles.”
As the Russia-Ukraine war looks set for an escalation, here is what has happened so far.
What happened on Monday
Russian forces hurled a volley of missiles on several Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, the western city of Lviv, Kharkiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytskyi.
Kyiv had not faced such intense missile attacks since the early weeks of the fighting, while Lviv had been the shelter for people fleeing war in eastern Ukraine. According to Reuters, in Kyiv, the bombs struck the busy city centre, with reports of at least five people killed and 12 wounded.
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