Following Russia's attacks on Ukrainian cities on Oct. 10, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged to "stop shifting the blame on the victim of aggression by suggesting that Putin was provoked" by the recent explosion on the Crimean Bridge.
Russia had been "constantly hitting Ukraine with missiles before the bridge," he said, adding that Putin is "desperate because of battlefield defeats."
The Russian dictator commits the "missile terror" in an attempt to change the pace of the war in his favor, according to Kuleba. "(Putin) doesn't need to be 'provoked' to commit heinous crimes," he said.
On Oct. 8, a massive explosion hit the Crimean Bridge on the span that carries railway traffic.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the President's Office, said that the explosion was the result of a conflict between the Russian military and law enforcement; Putin, in turn, blamed Ukrainian special services for it.
