‘A terrorist attack and an assassination attempt’

Russia says Ukraine tried to kill Putin with Kremlin drone strike

The Kremlin’s press service reported Wednesday that two Ukrainian drones tried to carry out an attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence in the Kremlin on Tuesday night.

In a statement, the Kremlin said the drones were “incapacitated” by “the timely actions of military and intelligence services using radar systems,” and that there were no injuries and no buildings were damaged.

According to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the president was not in the Kremlin at the time of the attack and is working from Novo-Ogaryovo, his official residence in the outskirts of Moscow, on Wednesday.

Blaming the "Kyiv regime" for the attack, the Russian authorities said they consider the incident a "planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt against the president of the Russian Federation," noting that it occurred shortly before the country's Victory Day, for which Russia is expecting "foreign guests." They added that they reserve the right to “take retaliatory measures when and where it considers necessary."

Videos of the incident have appeared on social media.

A Telegram channel for local residents posted a video late Tuesday night that showed smoke rising near the Kremlin. Residents reported hearing a "boom" that sounded like a "thunderclap."

Shortly before the Kremlin released its statement on the incident, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced that drones were to be banned in the city beginning on May 3.

Mikhail Sheremet, Russia's State Duma deputy from annexed Crimea, has called for the Russian military to launch a missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's residence in Kyiv in response to the alleged attack.

Zelensky spokesman Serhii Nykyforov said in a statement that the Ukrainian authorities have no information "about any so-called nighttime attacks on the Kremlin."

But, as President Zelensky has repeatedly said, Ukraine is devoting all of its efforts and resources to the liberation of its own territories, not to attacking other countries'. The [use of the] term "terrorist state" [by the Russian authorities] is also surprising. A terrorist attack is the destruction of residential buildings in Dnipro and Uman, or the missile attack on the train station in Kramatorsk, and numerous other tragedies. Whereas what happened in Moscow is obviously an escalation of the situation with an eye to the approaching May 9 holiday. A predictable step from our opponents.