US position on Ukraine's strikes on Crimea: Ukraine makes its own targeting decisions

The United States has responded to Russia "directly blaming" Washington of the 23 June strikes on occupied Crimea and emphasised that Ukraine decides which targets to hit with Western weapons on its own. Source: European Pravda citing Reuters Details: Pentagon spokesperson Major Charlie Dietz said that "Ukraine makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its own military operations".

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, commenting on the strike on Crimea, said that any civilian deaths are a tragedy.

"That certainly includes the thousands of innocent Ukrainians who have been killed by Russian forces since this Russian war of aggression began," he added. Recently, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that an attack was allegedly carried out on the civilian infrastructure of the city of Sevastopol with US-supplied ATACMS tactical missiles. Russian authorities claimed 4 people were killed and more than 150 injured.

At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defence admitted that civilian casualties were caused by the Russian air defence system.

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy, to whom it announced a demarche; it stated that the United States "is waging a hybrid war against Russia and has actually become a party to the conflict"; adding that there would be "retaliatory measures".

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