Putin Denies Russian Responsibility for Kremenchuk Strike

World

June 30th, 7:25am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a session of the VTB Capital Investment Forum "Russia Calling!" via a video conference call in Moscow, Russia November 30, 2021. (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied Moscow's forces were responsible for a strike on a crowded shopping center in the Ukrainian town of Kremenchuk earlier this week, in which 18 people were killed. "Our army does not attack any civilian infrastructure site. We have every capability of knowing what is situated where," Putin told a news conference in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat, reported AFP. "Nobody among us shoots just like that, randomly. It is normally done based on intelligence data on targets" and with "high-precision weapons". "I am convinced that this time, everything was done in this exact manner," Putin said. Ukraine accuses Russia of hitting the center on Monday in Kremenchuk, 330 kilometers (205 miles) southeast of Kyiv. Russia denies the accusation and previously claimed its missile salvo was aimed at an arms depot and the center was not in operation at the time.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3732446/putin-denies-russian-responsibility-kremenchuk-strike