On Wednesday, Russia accused Ukraine of trying to kill President Vladimir Putin by using a drone to assault the Kremlin citadel in Moscow. Russia threatened to react.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Kyiv was not involved in alleged night event.
During a visit to Finland, Zelenskyy spoke at a press conference about the war against Russian occupiers. He said, “We don’t attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory,”
As Kyiv gets ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive, a senior aide to Zelenskyy said the charge was evidence that the Kremlin was plotting a significant new attack on Ukraine. Ukraine raised air attack alerts for the country’s capital Kyiv and other cities shortly after the Kremlin statement.
Two unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Russia, were headed straight for the Kremlin.
“As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action. We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president’s life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned,” a Kremlin statement said.
It claimed that the drone parts were spread over the Kremlin grounds, but no one was hurt, or anything was damaged. Putin was not hurt as he wasn’t in the Kremlin at the time and was working on Wednesday, according to the RIA news agency.
“The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit,” the Kremlin added.
The incident “leaves us no option but to physically eliminate Zelenskyy and his clique,” according to former Russian president and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.
Two of the many videos posted on Russian social media channels depict two objects flying in the same direction towards the Senate dome, one of the highest points in the Kremlin complex. The second looked to leave burning wreckage on the dome, while the first appeared to be destroyed with little more than a puff of smoke.
However, some Western analysts suggested it was possible Russia may have staged the incident to place the blame on Kyiv and justify some sort of crushing response.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser for Ukraine, claimed that the drone accusation and a report that Russian authorities had apprehended suspected saboteurs in the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine “clearly indicates the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days.”
The White House in Washington said that it was unable to confirm the claims by Russia that Ukraine had used drones to assault the Kremlin in an effort to assassinate Putin.
