On December 2, a telephone conversation took place between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin. About the content of the conversation, TASS reports :
“Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, pointed out that the Russian Armed Forces had long refrained from targeted missile attacks on targets in Ukraine, but now this has become a necessary measure in response to Kiev’s provocations. This was announced on Friday by the Kremlin press service following the conversation.
“It was noted that the Russian armed forces had long refrained from targeted missile strikes against certain targets in the territory of Ukraine, but now such measures have become a forced and inevitable response to Kiev’s provocative attacks against Russian civilian infrastructure, including the Crimean bridge and energy facilities,” says in the message.
The explosion on the Crimean bridge occurred on October 8. It is not entirely clear what energy facilities Putin had in mind; maybe the Balaklava thermal power plant in Sevastopol, which Russia considers its own territory. The drone attack on this power plant was on the night of October 27th. Russia also announced strikes against the towns of Shebekino, Belgorod Region, and Valuyki, Voronezh Region; all this happened in October and November.
Now consider the chronology of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian civilian targets. Let's leave aside the actions of cannon artillery and aviation, including the almost complete destruction of Mariupol – after all, Putin spoke only about missile strikes. Attacks on airports and industrial enterprises, which, in principle, could be used for defense purposes, will also not be considered.
February 28: A Russian rocket hit a five-story residential building in Chernihiv. This was probably an attempt to strike at the television center.
March 1: A rocket attack was carried out on the building of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration. 7 people died.
March 2: Rocket attack on the building of the Faculty of Economics of Kharkiv University.
March 20: A Russian missile destroys the Retroville shopping center in Kiev. 8 people died. The Russian side claimed that the shopping center was used to store ammunition, but until the very moment of the attack, it continued to operate as usual.
March 22: Pavlograd II railway station was destroyed by a rocket attack. One person died.
March 25: The building of the Faculty of Economics of Kharkiv University is finally destroyed by a new missile attack.
March 29: The building of the Nikolaev Regional State Administration was destroyed . 37 people died.
April 4: Rocket attack on Odessa. Several non-residential buildings were destroyed . On the same day, a blow was struck on Nikolaev.
April 8: strike on the railway station in Kramatorsk, where there were several thousand civilians trying to evacuate. 60 people died, including 5 children.
April 18: A service station and civilian storage facilities in Lvov are destroyed by rockets. 7 civilians were killed.
April 23: In Odessa, 5 people, including a three-month-old baby, were killed when rockets hit two residential buildings.
April 25: strikes on 5 railway stations in central and western parts of Ukraine
April 27: rocket attack on the road and railroad bridge across the Dniester estuary in Zatoka, Odessa region (almost six months remained before the explosion on the Crimean bridge).
April 28: A rocket hit a 25-story residential building in Kiev, killing one person.
May 2: attack on a church in Odessa; a 13-year-old boy died. On the same day, three rocket hits on the bridge across the Dniester Estuary, which had already been hit on April 27.
May 4: strike on the Amur road-railway bridge in the Dnieper.
May 6: The museum of Grigory Skovoroda in the village of Skovorodinovka, Kharkiv region, was destroyed by a direct missile hit.
May 8: Three buildings on the embankment are destroyed by rockets in Odessa.
May 9: strikes on Odessa and a shopping and entertainment center in the village of Fontanka, Odessa region.
May 10: already the fourth missile attack on the bridge across the Dniester estuary.
May 12: attack on a school and boarding school in Novgorod-Seversky, three people were killed.
May 13: As a result of a missile strike, an architectural monument, the Vorontsov Palace in Odessa, was damaged .
May 20: rocket strike on the city of Lozovaya, Kharkiv region. The house of culture was destroyed, residential buildings and educational institutions were damaged , there were wounded.
May 30: Fifth missile attack on the bridge across the Dniester Estuary in Zatoka.
June 2: strike on the railway bridge in the Nikolaev region.
June 9: A rocket hit a multi-storey residential building in Novograd-Volynsky, Zhytomyr region.
June 20: 14 rockets are fired at Odessa and other settlements in southern Ukraine. A residential area and food warehouses in Odessa, agricultural areas in the suburbs of Ochakov suffered.
June 22: 7 missiles fired at Nikolaev. The school building, several private houses, two private enterprises were damaged.
June 24: The sports complex of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute was destroyed by a rocket strike.
June 26: A rocket hit a residential building in the Kiev region of Lukyanovka, killing one person. Another rocket fell on the territory of the kindergarten.
June 27: A direct rocket hit destroyed the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk, where about 1,000 people were located. More than 20 store employees and customers were killed.
June 28: 6 rockets fired at the city of Dnipro; service station destroyed.
July 1: a strike on a recreation center and a residential building in Sergeevka, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district, Odessa region. 21 people died, including one child.
July 3: attack on Kharkov, one person was killed.
July 6: The building of the Pedagogical University and the administrative building were destroyed in Kharkov.
July 7: Agricultural sheds where grain was stored were destroyed in the Odessa region.
July 8: in the town of Chasov Yar, Bakhmut district, Donetsk region, rockets hit a residential building and a railway station. 48 people died, including a child.
July 11: A 6-storey residential building and a school were destroyed in Kharkiv. 6 people died. On the same day, a rocket hit a private house in the Odessa region.
July 12: In Nikolaev, rockets hit two medical facilities and residential buildings.
July 14: A rocket attack was carried out in the center of Vinnytsia. 23 people died, including three children. The Russian side claimed that it had attacked the building of the House of Officers, where a certain meeting of the Ukrainian Air Force command with representatives of foreign arms suppliers was taking place, but in reality there was only preparation for the concert. One of the rockets destroyed the building of the House of Life and the Medical Center adjacent to the House of Officers
July 15: the buildings of the Nikolaev National University and the Nikolaev University of Shipbuilding were destroyed .
July 18: another strike on the no longer functioning bridge across the Dniester estuary.
July 23: The day after the signing of an agreement on the safe export of Ukrainian grain, a rocket attack was launched on the Odessa commercial port.
This is not a complete list of Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets that occurred long before the Ukrainian attacks, which Putin calls "provocations." Beginning in October, the Russian armed forces proceeded to destroy the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, which is absolutely disproportionate to the damage that Ukraine inflicted on the infrastructure of the aggressor state.