The deputy chairman of Russia’s defense council said on Sunday that there will be swift and tough action on a day of the final trial for Ukraine if Crimea is attacked. Dmitry Medvedev made his threat in a statement to the Russian state media TASS.
“Some ecstatic and bloody clowns, who appear there with some statements from time to time, try to threaten us, I mean attacks on Crimea, etc.,” Medvedev told a group of World War II veterans in Volgograd.
“If something like this happens, they will face a day of final judgment, very fast and hard, immediately. It should not be avoided,” Medvedev continued. “But they continue to provoke the general situation with these statements.”
Russia has threatened a “final” scenario for Ukraine if Crimea is attacked. Here, Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers parade through Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on May 9, 2022. Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images
Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and annexed the region of Ukraine that year. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 reaches its 21st week, and some of the most intense fighting has recently taken place in eastern Ukraine, near Crimea.
Mikhail Podolyak, who is one of the top advisers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Medvedev was simply “a little man forgotten by history, who tried to look serious and scary, but actually only caused pity.” more, and I’ll show you. all!’ Show what? Kill another child? “
A local resident, 82-year-old Raisa Kuval, reacts next to a partially destroyed damaged building after a bombing in the city of Chuguiv, east of Kharkiv, on July 16, 2022. – In the region from the northeast around the second city of Ukraine, Kharkiv, Governor Oleg Synegubov said that an attack with Russian missiles overnight killed three people in the city of Chuguiv. Photo of SERGEY BOBOK / AFP via Getty Images)
Zelensky responded to Medvedev’s “Doomsday” comment by saying it was not a sober comment and that Ukrainians would not be intimidated.
“Today, another not-so-sober statement has been made from Russia about Ukraine’s alleged ‘day of the final trial.’ Of course, no one will accept this intimidation,” Zelensky said. “But look how cynical it is to say the same thing today, on the upcoming anniversary of Russia’s destruction of Malaysia’s Boeing in the sky over the Ukrainian Donbas.”
Medvedev’s comment on “Doomsday” was probably sparked on Saturday by Ukrainian Defense Minister Vadym Skibitskyi saying Russian military installations in occupied Crimea were on the list of targets to be attacked by Ukrainian troops.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in eastern Ukraine by Russian forces on July 17, 2014. The shooting took place while the Russian invasion and occupation was taking place. of Crimea. There were a total of 298 passengers and crew on board, none of whom survived. 193 of the passengers were from the Netherlands.
The then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called it terrorism on behalf of the Russians. Meanwhile, in Russia, state media claimed that the Malaysian plane was shot down by a Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force.
Zelensky said on Sunday that even in 2014 – during the Crimean invasion and the Malaysian jet was shot down – Russia was on the verge of becoming a terrorist state.
“This will be the day of trial for Russia. And not in a figurative sense, not as a strong saying, but literally,” Zelensky said.