Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said that the West was involved, both directly and indirectly, in Ukrainian “terrorist attacks” against civilian targets in Russia.
Asked if Russia thought the West was involved in the attacks over recent days, Zakharova said on Wednesday the West supplied weapons, gave target coordinates, refused to condemn such attacks and actively incited such attacks.
Russia’s State Investigative Committee on Tuesday accused Ukraine of carrying out “acts of terrorism” by blowing up two railway bridges in Russia over the weekend. The blowing up of a highway bridge over a passenger train in Bryansk left at least seven people dead and dozens injured, including two children.
“These are several areas that prove the fact of the involvement, both direct and indirect, and the guilt of the West for the terrorist attacks that are taking place against civilians and civilian infrastructure facilities by the Kiev regime,” Zakharova said.
Ukraine has not commented on the weekend bridge attacks.
Trump was not informed in advance of Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russia, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.
Risk of escalation
US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy said the risk of escalation from the war in Ukraine was “going way up” after Ukrainian forces used drones to strike nuclear-capable bombers at several airbases deep inside Russia.
Ukraine’s dramatic drone attack on Russian bombers over the weekend has increased the risk of escalation to “unacceptable” levels, said US envoy Keith Kellogg.
“The risk levels are going way up,” Kellogg, President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News on Tuesday.
“When you attack an opponent’s part of their national survival system, which is their nuclear triad, that means your risk level goes up because you don’t know what the other side is going to do.”
“But any time you attack the triad, it is not so much the damage done on the bombers... it’s the psychological impact you have,” said Kellogg, adding that it showed Ukraine “is not lying down on this”.
The attack also showed Ukraine can raise risk levels “that are basically to me, they’ve got to be unacceptable”.
Since Russia launched a military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022, it has flexed its nuclear might to deter Kiev’s allies from intervening militarily.
Russia fired a medium-range Oreshnik missile at Ukraine in November that was not loaded but has the capability of carrying a nuclear warhead. It is not the first time Ukraine has challenged Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrence, having struck in 2024 an advanced radar system designed to warn Moscow of incoming ballistic missiles.
