Russia summons US ambassador over “barbaric” missile attack | News about the war between Russia and Ukraine

Moscow persistently claims that it is de facto waging a proxy war against the West.

Russia has summoned the US ambassador over a “barbaric” missile attack on a beach in Crimea that killed at least four people, including children, and injured 151.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Monday that it had summoned Ambassador Lynne Tracy to tell her that it held the United States directly responsible for Sunday’s missile attack near the city of Sevastopol. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has persistently claimed that it is waging a de facto proxy war with the West.

A recent US decision to allow Ukraine to use weapons from its supply against targets on Russian territory carries the risk of escalation and will have “consequences,” the Kremlin said.

The Ukrainian attack on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula was carried out with five US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

It said four missiles were launched and a fifth detonated in the air. The ministry claimed that US specialists had determined the missiles’ flight coordinates based on information from US spy satellites. There was no response from the US, which began supplying Ukraine with missiles earlier this year.

“Such actions by Washington … will not go unanswered,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday when it summoned the ambassador. “There will definitely be countermeasures.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack as “absolutely barbaric” and said at a press conference on Monday that Moscow would respond to US involvement.

“You should ask my colleagues in Europe and especially in Washington … why their governments are killing Russian children,” he suggested to reporters present.

‘Consequences’

Peskov also referred to statements by President Vladimir Putin about countries arming themselves in order to potentially carry out attacks on Western targets.

Last week he agreed to a military alliance with North Korea, causing concern among Western allies.

Russian politicians have recently warned that the war in Ukraine is entering its most dangerous phase yet. Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much larger war involving the world’s nuclear powers.

But blaming the United States directly for a deadly attack on Crimea – which Russia annexed in 2014 and now considers Russian territory, although much of the world considers it part of Ukraine – goes a step further.

“We know exactly who is behind it,” Peskov said, adding that it was clear who supplied Ukraine with weapons, targeted it and provided it with data.

“Of course, the involvement of the United States in the fighting, as a result of which peaceful Russians are dying, can only have consequences,” Peskov said. “What exactly – only time will tell.”