'They are trying to wipe us off the face of earth': Zelenskiy after Ukraine cities hit by Russian missiles

New Delhi: As Russian missiles pounded several Ukraine cities and killed civilians on Monday (October 10, 2022), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the rush hour attacks appeared to have been deliberately timed to kill people. He said that the Russsian are trying to "destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth." 

"They are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. 

"The air raid sirens do not subside throughout Ukraine. There are missiles hitting. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded," he added.

He also later filmed a video message on a mobile phone on an empty central Kyiv street surrounded by landmarks and said that the strikes had two main targets - energy infrastructure and people.

"Such a time and such targets were specially chosen to cause as much damage as possible," he said.

Ukraine's defence ministry said Russia had fired 81 cruise missiles, and Ukraine's air defences had shot down 43 of them. 

Cruise missiles tore into busy intersections, parks and tourist sites in the centre of downtown Kyiv with the city police saying that at least five people had been killed and 12 wounded in the capital.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Russia struck cities across Ukraine during rush hour, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure in apparent revenge after President Vladimir Putin declared an explosion on the bridge to Crimea to be a terrorist attack https://t.co/b3WkG42SN8 pic.twitter.com/Rsfyv2Xdyc

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 10, 2022

Explosions were also reported in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in Ukraine's west, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east.

Putin is a terrorist who talks with missiles: Ukraine Foreign Minister 

After the attacks, Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hit out at Russian President Vladimir Putin and said that he is "a terrorist who talks with missiles".

"Putin's only tactic is terror on peaceful Ukrainian cities, but he will not break Ukraine down. This is also his response to all appeasers who want to talk with him about peace: Putin is a terrorist who talks with missiles," he said.

It is notable that the strikes came two days after an explosion damaged the only bridge over the Kerch Strait to the Crimea peninsula, which Putin on Sunday called an act of terrorism by Ukraine's special services.

The bridge, which Putin personally opened, is a major supply route for Russian forces in southern Ukraine and a symbol of Russia's control of Crimea, the peninsula it proclaimed annexed after its troops seized it in 2014.

(With agency inputs)