“Some ecstatic, bloody clowns, popping up with some statements now and then, are trying to threaten us, I mean attacks on Crimea and so on,” Medvedev told a group of World War II veterans in Volgograd. “If this happens, they will be faced with a disaster, very fast and hard, immediately. There will be no avoidance,” Medvedev continued. “But they continue to provoke the general situation with such statements.” Russia has threatened a “doomsday” scenario for Ukraine if Crimea is attacked. Here, Russia’s Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers parade through Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on May 9, 2022. Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and annexed the Ukrainian region that year. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine is entering its 21st week, and some of the fiercest fighting recently has taken place in eastern Ukraine, near Crimea. Mikhail Podolyak, who is a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Medvedev was just “a little man forgotten by history, trying to look serious and scary, but in reality he only evokes pity. “Just a little more, and I’ll show you everything!” Show what? Kill another child?” A local resident, Raisa Kuval, 82, reacts next to a damaged building that was partially destroyed after a shelling in the city of Chuguiv, east of Kharkiv, on July 16, 2022. – In the northeastern region around Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, Governor Oleg Synegubov said a Russian rocket attack overnight killed three people in the town of Chuguiv. Photo by SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images) Zelensky responded to Medvedev’s “doomsday” comment by saying it was not a sober remark and that Ukrainians would not be intimidated. “Today, another not-so-sober statement was made by Russia regarding the alleged ‘doomsday’ for Ukraine. Of course, no one will accept such intimidation,” Zelensky said. “But look how cynical it is to say the same thing today – on the next anniversary of the Russian downing of the Malaysian Boeing in the skies over the Ukrainian Donbass.” Medvedev’s comment was likely triggered by Ukrainian Defense Minister Vadim Skibitskyi saying on Saturday that Russian military facilities in occupied Crimea are on the target list to hit Ukrainian troops. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in eastern Ukraine by Russian forces on July 17, 2014. The shooting took place during the Russian invasion and occupation of Crimea. A total of 298 passengers and crew were on board, none of whom survived. 193 of the passengers were from the Netherlands. The then president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, called it terrorism on behalf of the Russians. Meanwhile, in Russia, state media claimed the Malaysian airliner was shot down by a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 jet. Zelensky said on Sunday that even in 2014 – during the invasion of Crimea and the downing of the Malaysian Jet – Russia was on the way to becoming a terrorist state. “This will be the day of judgment for Russia. And not figuratively, not as a strong saying, but literally,” Zelensky said.
