SIMFEROPOL, June 24. /TASS/. The terrorist attack on the beach in Sevastopol brings the escalation of the conflict with the West to the highest point of tension, the Deputy Chairman of Crimea’s Council of Ministers and the region’s permanent representative at the Russian presidential office, Georgy Muradov, has told TASS.
"The terrorist attack on Sevastopol, a city which is a symbol of Russian military glory, carried out by Washington with the use of US-made long-range ATACMS missiles with the hands of Kiev’s neo-Nazis, brings the West's war against Russia to the highest stage of escalation. The fact that the strike was carried out on children and women on a beach with prohibited cluster munitions, which killed and wounded a hundred and fifty people, merely exposes the cruel nature of the organizers of this massacre," said Muradov, a professor of the Department of Comparative Political Science at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
He believes that escalation of the conflict is a deliberate aim of the terrorist attack. Also, its task is to anger Russian society to the maximum extent possible, thus probing into Russia readiness "to go to the end."
"However, the way I see it, the enemy underestimates that the anger of our people will be turned not only against Washington's puppets in Kiev, but also against the US itself," he said.
On June 23, the Ukrainian military attacked Sevastopol's civilian infrastructure with ATACMS tactical missiles armed with cluster warheads. Four missiles were shot down, but the fifth exploded over the city. Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said the attack killed four people, including two children. More than 150 others were injured.
The Investigative Committee has launched criminal proceedings over a terrorist attack. June 24 was declared a day of mourning in Sevastopol and Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to the people of Sevastopol.