Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced an intensification of attacks on military targets in Ukraine as revenge for the unprecedented bombing of the Russian city of Belgorod by the Ukrainian army over the weekend.
"We will intensify the strikes, no crime against civilians will go unpunished, that is a certainty," Putin declared during a visit to a military hospital according to Reuters.
He emphasized that these strikes would be conducted against military installations, precision-targeting decision-making places, where soldiers and mercenaries gather, and other similar centers, primarily military installations.
Describing the Belgorod bombing as a "terrorist act," which resulted in 24 deaths and over a hundred injuries on Saturday, Putin accused Ukrainian forces of striking "right in the city center, where people were walking before New Year's Eve".
Putin, however, considered that "Ukraine is not an enemy in itself" and accused the West of using the authorities in Kyiv to "solve their own problems" with Russia.
The Russian president further noted that Moscow's forces now have the "strategic initiative" on the Ukrainian front, where they are gaining ground from the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer.
The Belgorod bombing took place on Friday following a series of attacks by the Russian army on Ukrainian cities, which resulted in approximately forty deaths, AFP recalls.
