If Russia's concerned about casualties, they should stop this war – Pentagon on strikes on Crimea

The Pentagon has responded to Russia's accusations that the US is involved in a "hybrid war" against it after Ukraine's strikes on Crimea by noting that Ukraine chooses its own targets.

"It's important to take a look back at how we got to where we are today, which was Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and if they [Russia] are concerned about casualties among their forces then they should stop this war immediately and return Ukraine's sovereign territory versus throwing their forces unnecessarily into this," Major General Pat Ryder, press secretary of the US Department of Defense,  said at a briefing.

Ryder also reiterated that it was Russia that was responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, which has led to the deaths of thousands of innocent Ukrainians.

Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported an attack supposedly "on the civilian infrastructure of the city of Sevastopol with US-supplied ATACMS tactical missiles". The Russian authorities claimed that four people had been killed and more than 150 injured.

At the same time, Russia's Defence Ministry also acknowledged that civilian casualties had occurred due to Russian air defence operations.

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