Mateusz Morawiecki took to Facebook to decry the Kremlin’s attacks, the heaviest barrage since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The Polish PM said: “Today I held talks with European Council President Charles Michel and Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal about Russia’s further barbarous attacks on Ukrainian cities.”
Morawiecki added: “By launching them, the Russian Federation is only confirming that it is a terrorist state. Amid the successes of the Ukrainian army, Putin is growing increasingly desperate.”
Poland’s PM went on to say: “If anyone in the European capitals is still in any doubt as to what is the true face of the Russian president, then today his true nature is increasingly emerging - that of a murderer and a criminal who doesn’t care about international law or about life - neither of the Ukrainians nor of the Russians themselves.”
With regard to Monday's attacks, Morawiecki stressed: "Poland and the European Union condemn these actions with all firmness and they will be met with further, decisive measures on our part!"
Russia’s deadly strikes on Ukraine’s cities
From Monday morning, Russia sent dozens of missiles and drones tearing into Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and many other busy cities across the country, including Lviv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, the Reuters news agency reported.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks had been specially timed to kill people, as well as to damage Ukraine's power grid, according to news outlets.
He later tweeted: “The world once again saw the true face of a terrorist state that is killing our people.”
Zelensky added: “It proves that the liberation of Ukraine is the only basis of peace & security.”
11 killed, 87 injured
At least eleven people were killed and a further 87 injured across Ukraine in Russia’s mass missile strike, Ukraine’s police chief Ihor Klymenko said on Monday afternoon, as cited by the Ukrainska Pravda website.
Some 70 facilities are known to have been damaged, including 29 critical infrastructure facilities, 4 high-rise buildings, 35 private residential buildings and a school in the capital Kyiv, officials added, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda.
Retribution for Crime bridge: Putin
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised speech that the strikes on Ukrainian cities were a response to Saturday's attack on the Kerch Strait bridge linking the illegally occupied Crimea to Russia, and threatened more attacks in future if Ukraine hit Russian land, the Reuters news agency reported.
'Putin’s Russia stands for brutality and terror': EU’s von der Leyen
The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement she was “Shocked and appalled by the vicious attacks on Ukrainian cities.”
“Putin’s Russia has again shown the world what it stands for: brutality and terror,” she added.
“Those who are responsible have to be held accountable,” von der Leyen stressed.
Monday was day 229 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, Reuters, apnews.com, pravda.com.ua, ec.europa.eu