Ukraine updates: Russia summons US envoy over Crimea strike

The Pentagon flatly rejected Kremlin accusations that the US was responsible for a Sunday missile attack that reportedly killed four people, including two children, and injured some 150 more in the port city of Sevastopol on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

Russia claimed that US-made ATACMS missiles fitted with cluster munitions were used in the attack. It laid part of the blame on Washington, saying the arms were programmed by the US using US targeting data. 

But Pentagon spokesman Major Charlie Dietz rejected the claim, saying that "Ukraine makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its own military operations."

AWhite House Security Council spokesperson lamented loss of civilian life as a tragedy.

Russia also summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy over Sunday's strike, claiming the US was, "waging a hybrid war against Russia and has actually become a party to the conflict." The Kremlin said Tracy was told the incident: "would not go unpunished" and retaliatory measures "will definitely follow." 

Russian officials have consistently threatened escalation of the war that it launched in February 2022, regularly suggesting various actions — including possible nuclear attacks — against EU members states, the US and NATO countries assisting Ukraine.

Russian news agencies reported a state of emergency had been declared in Sevastopol, on the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea.

Russia's TASS news agency published a decree issued by Governor Mikhail Razvoshayev on Monday that read: "I decree ... to declare a state of emergency on the territory of the city of Sevastopol until further order."

Four people, including two children were killed and 151 injured in the attack, Razvoshayev said, with 79 people still receiving treatment.

Sevastopol is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, while the Belbek military airfield is situated in the Sevastopol city area.

Kyiv has targeted Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, throughout Moscow's Ukraine offensive.

Ukraine has repeatedly said it plans to take back the territory.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the country's new chief of the State Security Service (SBU) Oleksiy Morozov to make sure that his department was "staffed exclusively by patriotic professional people who connect their fate exclusively with Ukraine."

In a post on the Telegram messaging service, Zelenskyy said that Morozov "has carte blanche for change," adding that "New approaches to work with personnel are needed."

"And, of course, the administration must be cleansed of all those who choose not Ukraine for themselves or discredit the State Security Office," Zelenskyy said, hinting at a possible purge in the country's state guard.

The SBU said last month that it had caught two guard service colonels accused of cooperating with Russia to plot the assassination of Zelenskyy and other officials, including military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.

Morozov's predecessor Serhiy Rud was dismissed in May, two days after the SBU's detention of agency employees who it said worked for Russia's Federal Security Service and leaked classified information.

There has been no comment from Moscow.

The Donetsk regional governor on Monday said that Russian strikes had killed four people and wounded dozens more in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk.

"At least four people were killed and 34 wounded — these are the preliminary results of the strike on Pokrovsk. Among the wounded are two children aged 12 and 13. They are in a moderate to serious condition," Governor Vadym Filashkin said on social media.

Russian troops launched two missiles, he added, destroying one private house and damaging 16 more.

The southern port city of Odesa has been hit by a Russian missile attack, according to regional authorities and the country's air force.

"Russian occupants attacked the Odesa region with two cruise missiles. One of them was eliminated," the air force said on social media.

The military said a warehouse was hit in the attack and that three people were wounded, without providing details.

Regional governor Oleh Kiper said a 19-year-old and two middle-aged men have been taken to hospital.

Kiper said on national television that around 5,000 square meters had been damaged in the attack and that a fire had spread over 3,000 square meters.

Although the east of the country has borne the brunt of Russia's invasion, the Black Sea port of Odesa, which is key for Ukrainian exports, has faced frequent missile and drone attacks.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday adopted a 14th package of sanctions against 115 individuals and entities linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The new measures are designed to clamp down on sanction evasion and to stop Russia from getting Western weapons technology.

The package was greenlighted following several weeks of delays caused by German concerns over business regulations.

The measures also seek to reduce Russia's revenues from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports by barring trans-shipments off EU ports.

The ministers said in a statement that the EU will "forbid reloading services of Russian LNG in EU territory for the purpose of transshipment operations to third countries."

The measures stop short of an EU ban on LNG imports, which have risen since the start of the war.

The EU estimates around 4-to-6 billion cubic meters (141 billion-212 billion cubic feet) of Russian LNG was shipped to third countries via EU ports last year.

Russia is suspected of running a "ghost fleet" of up to 400 vessels to circumvent sanctions and continue to flow of energy income to continue financing its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Monday after Sunday's missile strike on Crimea in which four people were killed, including two children.

Tracy was told by the Foreign Ministry that Washington "bears equal responsibility with the Kyiv regime for this atrocity," and warned there would be consequences.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the strike on Sevastopol "barbaric" and accused Washington of "killing Russian children."

"The involvement of the United States, the direct involvement, as a result of which Russian civilians are killed, cannot be without consequences," Peskov told reporters. "Time will tell what these will be."

Russia said Sunday's strikes on Sevastopol had been carried out with US-supplied ATACMS missiles, four of which were intercepted.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the explosion of the fragmentation warhead of the fifth missile caused the casualties.

Russia occupied the Ukrainian province of Crimea in 2014 and subsequently annexed it in an illegal move that has not been recognized by the international community.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, wrote on Telegram on Monday: "Crimea is Ukraine."

"Russia must leave the peninsula. Their army and military objects there must cease to exist."

kb/ab (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)