Kremlin accuses Kyiv of drone attacks and attacks on journalists

The Kremlin also denied on Monday that Russian forces had struck a cathedral in the Ukrainian city of Odesa.

 Noctilucent clouds are seen over the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia July 4, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/MAXIM SHEMETOV)
Noctilucent clouds are seen over the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia July 4, 2023.
(photo credit: REUTERS/MAXIM SHEMETOV)

The Kremlin on Monday accused Kyiv of carrying out a "deliberate attack on journalists" in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, in which a reporter for the Russian state news agency RIA was killed.

Russia has launched a criminal probe into Rostislav Zhuravlev's death.

The Kremlin denied on Monday that Russian forces had struck a cathedral in the Ukrainian city of Odesa and said, without providing evidence, that a rocket launched by Ukraine had hit it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said a Russian missile had slammed into Odesa's Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral or Transfiguration Cathedral.

Russia's Defense Ministry has said the cathedral was probably struck by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

 Kyiv after Russian drone attack, 2022 (credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Kyiv after Russian drone attack, 2022 (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Russian Foreign Ministry: "We have the right to take tough retaliatory measures"

Russia reserves the right to take "tough retaliatory measures", the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, after it accused Ukraine of attacking Moscow and the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with drones.

Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier that Ukraine fired 17 drones at Crimea overnight, while a drone strike on Moscow damaged buildings.