Russia’s Vladimir Putin wrongly called Saturday’s partial destruction of a flagship bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea a “terrorist act”. His revenge was to unleash mass terror on cities across Ukraine on Monday, missiles raining destruction from the sky in the midst of the morning rush hour. The bombardment was the most wide-ranging since the early weeks of the war. Since international law states parties to conflict “must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants” and not direct attacks against civilians, it is hard to see this as anything other than the latest in the Kremlin’s grim catalogue of war crimes in Ukraine, one directly ordered by its president.
俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)错误地将上周六连接俄罗斯和被吞并的克里米亚的一座旗舰桥梁部分被毁的事件称为“恐怖主义行为”。他采取的报复是，周一在乌克兰各地的城市发动大规模恐怖袭击，导弹在早高峰从天而降，毁灭一切。这次轰炸是自战争开始的最初几周以来范围最广的一次。由于国际法规定，冲突各方“在任何时候都必须区分平民和战斗人员”，而不得直接攻击平民，因此很难不认为这起事件是克里姆林宫在乌克兰犯下的一系列残酷战争罪行的最新一起，而且是由其总统直接下令。