The Ukrainian leader is being infantile by blaming Moscow for the escalation in the conflict, Maria Zakharova has said
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is acting like a child after Moscow conducted a strike with a new hypersonic missile this week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed on Friday.
The Russian military used the Oreshnik ballistic missile to attack a Ukrainian military plant, President Vladimir Putin said in a video statement on Thursday. The “test” came in response to Kiev launching Western-donated ballistic and cruise missiles into Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions earlier in the week, he added.
Zelensky responded to the Russian strike by claiming that Moscow is to blame for the escalation in the conflict, because Ukrainian troops had already used the same foreign-donated weapons prior to this week’s attacks.
Commenting on social media, Zakharova said the Ukrainian leader’s claims were as “wonderous as his previous ones.”
“Sounds like: ‘Daddy, why are you punishing us for breaking the window now; it’s not the first time we’ve done that!?’” she added.
In his address on Thursday, Putin said Moscow reserves the right to attack military targets of foreign nations that allow the use of their weapons against Russian facilities.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who currently serves as deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, has described the strike as a warning to Moscow’s adversaries.
“So, that’s what you wanted? Well, you’ve damn well got it!” he remarked on X, posting footage of the Oreshnik strike.
The events this week came after US President Joe Biden reportedly authorized Kiev’s attacks with ATACMS ballistic missiles on internationally recognized Russian territory. The British government is said to have made the same decision regarding its Storm Shadow missiles, which it produces jointly with France. Neither government has officially announced a policy change.
Kiev received ATACMS and Storm Shadow months ago on the supposed condition that they would not be used outside of territory that it claims under its sovereignty. The missiles were previously used in line with those terms, with the Russian military reporting their interceptions on multiple occasions.
