The US is using terrorist methods through its proxy Ukraine, after Kiev failed to beat Russia on the battlefield, the secretary of the Russian national security council, Nikolay Patrushev, has alleged.
“In coordination with Western handlers, the Ukrainian special services are conducting numerous attacks with aerial and naval unmanned vehicles against Moscow, Crimea, border regions of Russia and its other parts,” the senior official stated during a government meeting on Monday.
“The US and its satellites, which realize that warfare alone cannot inflict defeat on Russia, have started to actively use terrorist methods,” he explained.
Patrushev specifically identified the attack on the Crimean Bridge earlier this month as an example of such crimes, noting that two civilians were killed in the attack.
Citing an anonymous source, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed last week that the administration of US President Joe Biden played a “vital” role in that incident as well as the previous one, which happened last October and killed three civilians.
Patrushev mentioned Hersh’s reporting, calling it further evidence that “by providing financial support and supplying arms to the Kiev regime, the US and its allies de facto act as sponsors of terrorism.”
Kiev all but claimed credit for the latest attack on the bridge, with a spokesman for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) promising to reveal details after the conflict with Russia was over. The reaction was in stark contrast to the Ukrainian government’s denials of being behind the bombing last year.
Moscow has accused Kiev of a number of terrorist attacks, including assassinations of public figures and attempts to sabotage Russian energy infrastructure. Kiev claims that the Crimean Bridge is a legitimate military target that needs to be “neutralized,” as President Vladimir Zelensky put it.
Washington has refused to condemn Kiev’s choice of places to attack in Crimea. American officials “do not take it upon [themselves] to determine legitimacy or illegitimacy of targets that the Urkainans hit,” US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby explained.