Moscow stock exchange dropped 12% at opening on Monday on intensifying geopolitical risks and a sharp drop in Gazprom shares as it started trading ex-dividend.
Several international media agencies report that on Monday morning, Russia bombed cities across Ukraine, in apparent revenge strikes after President Vladimir Putin declared an explosion on the bridge to Crimea to be a terrorist attack.
According to Reuters’s report, State Emergency Services notified Ukrainian state channel Suspilne that the explosions had resulted in deaths and injuries, however the exact number of victims is unknown.
There were also explosions reported in the cities of Lviv, Ternopil, and Zhytomyr in western Ukraine; Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine; Zaporizhzhia in the south; and Kharkiv in the east.
Prior to the attack, Putin accused Ukraine of what he called a terrorist attack on a key bridge linking Russia and Crimea.
The Kerch Strait Bridge, an imposing symbol of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and also a vital artery of Sevastopol where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based, exploded on Saturday (October 8), causing three casualties at the scene.
Also, the ruble dropped on Monday, falling to 63 per dollar for the first time in over three months.
