The Russian military has been bombing Ukrainian military facilities in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a news briefing.
“President Putin is taking the decisions that are necessary to ensure the security of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, saying Russia’s strikes were a response to Ukrainian ones.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin was defending Russia after US President Donald Trump called him “crazy” following three consecutive days of massive Russian strikes on Ukraine.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” he added.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia was acting out of a “sense of total impunity” after three days of huge strikes on Ukraine, calling on Kyiv’s allies to increase sanctions on Moscow.
“Only a sense of total impunity can allow Russia to carry out such strikes and continue increasing their scale,” Zelensky said on social media, adding: “The increase in Russian strikes should be met with increased sanctions.”
Massive Drone Attack
Russia fired 355 drones at Ukraine overnight in the biggest such attack since Moscow’s 2022 invasion, Kyiv said on Monday, a day after Russian strikes killed 13 people.
US President Donald Trump earlier said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had gone “absolutely crazy” in a rare rebuke of the Kremlin chief as Moscow bombed Ukraine during a major prisoner exchange.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched “355 Shahed-type drones”, including decoys, as well as nine cruise missiles, with its spokesman Yuriy Ignat confirming to AFP that it was the largest drone attack since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The drone strikes on Monday came after what Kyiv described as a weekend of “terror”.
Kyiv has so far not reported deaths from the drone attack, but said that Russian shelling in the last 24 hours had killed one civilian man in the north-eastern Sumy region, which has been under relentless Russian attack for several months.
Air alerts in Kyiv lasted for six hours, the capital’s authorities said.
In the western Khmelnytsky region, local authorities said that 18 residential buildings were damaged by Russian drones.
The head of the southern Odesa region said a 14-year-old boy was wounded there.
French Magazine Charlie Hebdo Goes To Court Over ‘Pro-Russian Propaganda’
French weekly Charlie Hebdo said on Monday it had gone to court over fake covers of the satirical magazine, in an effort to defend its image and identify the authors of the apparently pro-Russian “propaganda”.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia has deployed a highly organised information warfare campaign to garner support for its war.
Covers purporting to represent the popular French publication and mocking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been making the rounds on social media, including on messaging app Telegram as well as X.
The images feature Charlie Hebdo’s instantly recognisable style and fake cartoons are accompanied by the signatures of its cartoonists.
“There is an almost industrial approach that is accelerating, with numerous front pages of very high quality,” the publication’s lawyer Richard Malka told AFP.
“It would be easy to be misled if one were not familiar with the newspaper’s editorial line,” Malka added.
“There is a clear intention behind this that appears to be pro-Russian propaganda.”
The editorial team said that around 15 fake front pages published over two years appear to be “primarily intended for a Russian audience, to make them believe that Charlie Hebdo is anti-Zelensky and pro-Putin”.
Fake Images
The complaint against counterfeiting has been filed with a Paris court with the aim of “at least identifying the authors and possibly the instigators of this propaganda”, Charlie Hebdo said.
The cover pages are “accompanied by captions or comments written in Russian”, said a copy of the complaint seen by AFP.
Certain front pages mock Zelensky and the Ukrainian army, and French President Emmanuel Macron’s support for Kyiv, Charlie Hebdo said.
Others poke fun at Britain’s migration policy and recycle false conspiracy theories over the gender of France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron.
Since Moscow’s invasion, “the Russian authorities have been using all means of communication to influence and mislead public opinion in Europe”, said Charlie Hebdo.
The magazine said it wanted to “defend its image and values” and “dispel any doubts that these manipulations could raise in public opinion”.
France is one of the most vocal supporters of Kyiv.
In recent years, it has been the target of more disinformation campaigns coming from abroad, including from Russia, than any other European country apart from Ukraine, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said in March.
© Agence France-Presse
