Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that the blast a day earlier on the bridge over the Kerch Strait, a major supply route for Moscow's forces in southern Ukraine, was "an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure", Reuters reports. “This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services,” he stated. According to the head of Russia's Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin Russian citizens and foreign countries were involved. At the Kremlin he stated that the route of the truck which Russia says was blown up on the bridge had been established, saying that it had started out from Bulgaria and travelled by ferry to Georgia, then Armenia, North Ossetia and Russia's Krasnodar region before reaching the bridge. After announcing that traffic along the bridge had been restored, the Russian authorities admitted that this only concerns cars, and that the bridge is yet to undergo repairs.

In retaliation to the attack on the Crimean bridge, the Russian army has continued shelling civilian targets in Ukraine. The air defence system has been engaged over Kyiv since Sunday. Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitchko reported explosions in Kyiv’s Shevchenko district, a large area in the center of Kyiv that includes the historic old town as well as several government offices. Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro have once again been shelled. 

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, in an interview with ABC, that there is no “new or fresh intelligence or new indications that Mr. Putin has made a decision to use nuclear weapons and, quite frankly, we don't have any indication that he has made that kind of decision.”

“Mr. Putin started this war and Mr. Putin could end it today, simply by moving his troops out of the country," John Kirby said, adding, "We all want to see this war end. ... And what needs to happen is for the two sides to be able to sit down and negotiate and find a way out of this peacefully and diplomatically.”

“Terrorism at the state level is one of the most heinous international crimes, which threatens not just someone in the world, but the entire international community,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensy in his nightly video address, reiterating his stance that it is impossible to negotiate with Russia.

The European Commission is drafting a directive for seizing frozen Russian assets in EU to be used for the post-war restoration of Ukraine, Bloomberg reports.