‘We warned you’: Russian hawks gleeful over attacks on Ukraine

On Saturday, the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday, a blast severely damaged the bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula to Russia. The explosion is widely believed to be the work of Ukrainian intelligence, Qazet.az reports.

On Monday, a barrage of missiles rained down across Ukraine — killing at least 11 people, wounding dozens and hitting infrastructure all the way from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east.

Putin made no secret of the missile strikes being payback for the attack on the bridge.

“By its actions, the Kyiv regime has actually put itself on the same level with international terrorist groups and with the most odious of those,” he said at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council.

“It is simply no longer possible to leave crimes of this kind unanswered,” he said. “If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks continue, Russia’s response will be severe and will correspond to the threat facing it. Nobody should be in any doubt.”