Russia's Foreign Ministry: American Military Specialists “bear the same responsibility for this atrocity as the Kiev regime.”

Moscow summons US ambassador over civilian deaths in Sevastopol attack

RT

The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the US ambassador to Moscow after Ukraine used American-supplied ATACMS missiles in an attack on the Crimean peninsula, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry said Ambassador Lynne Tracy had been presented with a demarche in connection with what it called “a new bloody crime of the Kiev regime patronized and armed by Washington,” referring to the Ukrainian shelling of Sevastopol the day before.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian attack occurred around noon local time on Sunday, involving five ATACMS missiles armed with cluster munitions, which are outlawed in more than 100 countries. Officials said four rockets had been destroyed in mid-air, while a fifth was damaged by air defenses, veered off course, and detonated over Sevastopol. Local authorities say the strike killed four people, including two children, and injured more than 150.

In conversation with Tracy, Russian officials emphasized that the United States was “waging a hybrid war against Russia,” and had become party to the Ukraine conflict by supplying Kiev with modern weapons, including ATACMS missiles with cluster munitions.

The ministry also noted that American military specialists were actively engaged in designing the flight mission for ATACMS, which means they “bear the same responsibility for this atrocity as the Kiev regime.”

The ministry added that Tracy had been told that the US was “encouraging the pro-Nazi Ukrainian authorities to continue hostilities until the ‘last Ukrainian’” by approving strikes deep inside Russian territory. These actions by Washington “will not go unpunished,” Moscow warned.

Commenting on potential retaliation on Monday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov recalled what he described as a “very important” statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he said Moscow could send its long-range weapons to regions where they could be used to attack countries that provide Ukraine with military support.

Washington siding with terrorism – Moscow

The US is helping Ukraine launch “terrorist strikes” against Russian civilians, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, has said. Kiev used US-provided ATACMS missiles with cluster munition warheads to attack the Russian city of Sevastopol on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring more than 150 others, including dozens of children.

While four of the missiles were intercepted by air defenses, a fifth veered off course and detonated a cluster warhead over a busy Black Sea beach, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

The Ukrainian attack was purposefully carried out when there was a maximum concentration of people on the beach, Antonov told journalists when asked to comment on Washington’s lack of reaction to the deadly strike.

“The administration demonstratively supports the crimes of the Kiev regime. It took the side of international terrorism, and condones attacks on civilians by Bandera’s adherents,” the ambassador stated.

“It is obvious to policymakers in Washington that cluster munitions in ATACMS missiles cannot be launched without the participation of American specialists and support from US intelligence. It is no coincidence that enemy drones are circling over the Black Sea almost every day,” he added.