Moscow and Kyiv trade threats after attack on Russian capital
A look back at the exchange of warnings between the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships following an attack on Moscow.
What did each side promise after the attack on Moscow? On 18 June 2026, the answer from both capitals was escalation, delivered in blunt terms.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the attack by threatening Moscow. He said that if Ukraine burns, Moscow will burn too, and presented the remark as a warning against further Russian attacks on his country.
Russia, for its part, said it would carry out a "massive retaliation" against Ukraine. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian Armed Forces would from then on conduct "massive group strikes" on a "regular basis" following the attack on Moscow.
The two statements, made on the same day, set out the positions of the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships in the aftermath of the strike: Kyiv warned of consequences for the Russian capital, while Moscow announced a pattern of repeated large-scale attacks on Ukraine.
