Russia accuses the US of “killing children” in “barbaric” attack on Crimea and warns of “consequences”

Peskov referred to comments by President Vladimir Putin earlier this month that countries should be armed to potentially carry out attacks on Western targets.

“The involvement of the United States, the direct involvement, as a result of which Russian civilians are killed, cannot remain without consequences,” Peskov told reporters.

“Time will tell what that will be,” he said.

The State Department said it had summoned U.S. envoy Lynne Tracy on Monday.

A later statement said Washington bore “the same responsibility for this atrocity as the Kiev regime” and that the attack “would not go unpunished.”

Russia said Sunday’s attack on the city of Sevastopol was carried out with a US-supplied ATACMS missile equipped with a cluster warhead.

Local officials based in Moscow said the missile hit an area of ​​the port city with sandy beaches and hotels.

At a meeting with international news agencies this month, Putin criticized the West’s supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine.

“If someone believes that it is possible to deliver such weapons to a war zone in order to attack our territory and create problems for us, then why do we not have the right to deliver weapons of the same class to regions of the world where there could be attacks on sensitive facilities of these (Western) countries?” Putin asked.

“That means the reaction can be asymmetric. We will think about it,” he told reporters.

Peskov also referred to Putin’s statements that targeting data for Ukrainian attacks was being provided by Western countries.

Crimea was unilaterally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said on Monday: “Crimea is Ukraine.”

“Russia must leave the peninsula. Its army and military facilities there must cease to exist,” he said on social media.

A high-ranking adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mykhailo Podoliak, also said that Crimea was a legitimate military target.

“Crimea is also a major military camp and warehouse with hundreds of direct military targets that the Russians are cynically trying to hide and cover up with their own civilians,” he said.