The deputy chairman of Russia’s Defense Council said on Sunday that there would be swift and firm action on Ukraine’s doomsday if Crimea is invaded. Dmitry Medvedev made his threat in a statement to Russian state media TASS.
“Some ecstatic, bloody clowns who appear there with some statements from time to time, try to threaten us, I mean attacks on Crimea and so on,” Medvedev told a group of World War II veterans in Volgograd.
“If something like this happens, they will face a judgment day, very quick and severe, immediately. There is no way to avoid it,” Medvedev continued. “But they continue to provoke the general situation with such statements.
Russia has threatened Ukraine with a “doomsday” scenario if Crimea is invaded. Here, Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers parade through Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on May 9, 2022. Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images
Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and annexed the Ukrainian region the same year. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine is entering its 21st week, and some of the heaviest fighting of late has been in eastern Ukraine, near Crimea.
Mykhailo Podolyak, who is a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Medvedev was just “a small man forgotten by history, who tries to look serious and scary, but in reality he only evokes pity. “Just a little while and I’ll show you everything!” Show what? Kill another child?”
A local resident, Raisa Kuval, 82, reacts next to a damaged building partially destroyed after shelling in the city of Chuguiv, east of Kharkiv, July 16, 2022 – In the northeastern region around Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, Governor Oleg Sinegubov said that Russian a rocket attack at night killed three people in the city of Chuguiv. Photo by SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images)
Zelensky responded to Medvedev’s “scary day” remark by saying it was not a sober remark and that Ukrainians would not be frightened.
“Today, another not-so-sober statement was made by Russia about the alleged “day of terrible judgment” for Ukraine. Of course, no one will accept such intimidation,” Zelensky said. “But look how cynical it is to say the same thing today – on another anniversary of Russia’s downing of the Malaysian Boeing in the sky over the Ukrainian Donbass.”
Medvedev’s “terrible day” remark was likely prompted by Ukrainian Defense Minister Vadym Skibitsky on Saturday, who said Russian military installations in occupied Crimea were on the list of targets for strikes by Ukrainian forces.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in eastern Ukraine by Russian forces on July 17, 2014. The shooting occurred during the Russian invasion and occupation of Crimea. A total of 298 passengers and crew were on board, none of whom survived. 193 of the passengers are from the Netherlands.
Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called it terrorism on behalf of the Russians. Meanwhile, in Russia, state media claimed the Malaysian plane was shot down by a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25.
Zelensky said on Sunday that even in 2014 – at the time of the invasion of Crimea and the downing of the Malaysian airliner – Russia was on the verge of becoming a terrorist state.
“This will be the day of judgment for Russia. And not in a figurative sense, not as a loud saying, but literally,” said Zelensky.
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