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"It likely was something they had been planning for quite some time. Now that's not to say that the explosion on the Crimean bridge might have accelerated some of their planning," John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, told CNN.
Kirby said he's not sure if Putin definitely shifted his strategy to undermining civilian morale and inflicting damage on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, but this trend had already been in the works for some time.
Following Russia's widespread missile strikes that killed 19 people in the morning of Oct. 10, U.S. President Joe Biden promised to give Ukraine advanced air defense systems.
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