Moscow’s military killed at least five civilians and wounded 16 in shelling of southeastern Ukraine, as Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he was suspending his country’s role in a major nuclear arms control deal in reply to an “existential threat” from the West.
The United States described Russia’s decision to freeze participation in the New Start pact as “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible” but insisted it was still ready at any time to discuss nuclear stability issues and strategic arms limitations with the Kremlin.
“A tragic day for Kherson... The Russian military shelled the city with the Grad multiple-rocket system. As always, their targets were civilians and civilian infrastructure,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of Kherson region, after deadly shelling in the provincial capital on Tuesday.
Russian troops were driven out of Kherson city and the western part of the region in November, but shell Kyiv-controlled areas from the eastern bank of the Dnipro river every day.
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Mr Prokudin posted pictures of bloodied bodies lying in the streets of Kherson, amid missile fragments and shattered glass from shop windows and damaged cars, as smoke rose over part of the city.
The attack came shortly after Mr Putin told senior Russian political and military figures that because of what he described as western aggression against Russia, including via Ukraine, he was suspending Moscow’s participation in the New Start treaty.
The West was “essentially delivering an ultimatum that you, Russia, must stick unquestioningly to everything that you have agreed to do, including the New Start treaty, while we behave as we like”, Mr Putin said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said it was “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible” that Russia was suspending participation in New Start, which restricts the number of strategic nuclear weapons that Russia and the US can deploy.
CNN quoted a US national security council spokesman as saying Washington was still “ready to meet with Russia to discuss the treaty and nuclear stability issues”.
On Tuesday evening, the foreign ministry in Moscow said that “to maintain a sufficient degree of predictability and stability in the sphere of nuclear missiles, Russia... will continue to strictly observe the quantitative restrictions foreseen by the New Start treaty.”
The ministry said Russia would also continue to inform Washington of any plans to test intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“We are not at war with the people of Ukraine,” Mr Putin insisted, nearly a year after launching a full-scale invasion that has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians and displaced millions.
“The people of Ukraine have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its western handlers, who have in fact occupied that country,” he claimed.
“Responsibility for inciting and escalating the Ukraine conflict, as well as the sheer number of casualties, lies entirely with the western elites and, of course, today’s Kyiv regime,” Mr Putin added.
“The West is using Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia... This means they plan to finish us once and for all. In other words, they plan to expand a local conflict into a global confrontation. This is how we understand it and we will respond accordingly, because this represents an existential threat to our country.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Mr Putin was “in a completely different reality, where there is no opportunity to conduct a dialogue about justice and international law”.
“Russia is at a dead end. In the most desperate situation. Everything that Russia will do next will only worsen its situation,” he told Reuters. “This means that chaos both on the battlefield and inside Russia will grow.”