Russia has said Ukraine attacked the Kremlin with drones overnight, accusing Kyiv of an assassination attempt on the life of President Putin.
"Today at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles," the Kremlin said.
"We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation."
Footage circulating on social media shows a drone flying towards the Kremlin before exploding close to a rooftop.
Astonishing footage of last night's drone attack on the Kremlin pic.twitter.com/3rghCHdIed
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) May 3, 2023
Ukraine has denied involvement in the attack. President Zelensky on Wednesday evening said: "We didn't attack Putin... We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities."
"We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We don't have enough weapons for this," he told reporters at a press conference with Nordic leaders in Helsinki.
Shortly after news of the attack broke, a high ranking Russian official demanded "the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime".
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian Duma and Putin ally, added. "No negotiations can take place with the regime of (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky."
Russia's ex-president Dmitry Medvedev later called for the "physical elimination" of Zelensky.
"After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left aside the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal," said Medvedev, who has been increasingly hawkish since Moscow's Ukraine offensive.
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According to the statement posted by the Russian President's administration, there were no injuries reported, and the attack had no impact on Putin's work schedule.
📹 More footage from another angle of the night drone attack on the #Kremlin pic.twitter.com/HC4fZQqY3a
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) May 3, 2023
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was working at his residence near Moscow on Wednesday and would still take part in a scheduled WWII Victory Day parade on Red Square next week as planned.
Moscow's mayor announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over the Russian capital.
In a statement, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said drone flights would be prohibited unless a special permit had been obtained from "government authorities".
Authorities have tried to reassure Russians that the conflict is distant and does not pose a threat to Russian territory but a series of recent attacks are making this task increasingly more difficult.
A recent report revealed one of the biggest fears among the Russian population currently is the fear of acts of sabotage on their own territory.
A Ukrainian military intelligence official told Kyiv Post today that this feeling will be justified until “Russian troops are withdrawn from Ukraine, war criminals are extradited, and Ukraine is compensated for the damage caused.”
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Comments (4)
Internal attacks by Russian partisan groups or just Russian lies. If it's partisans they are showing symbolically that you are not safe Putan watch your back asshole. If it's just bullshit Russian bullshit fuck you and I hope someone gives you a statue bomb.
Puny Putin continues to dig his hole. In making the false claim of a Ukrainian assassination attempt, he only displays his desperation and increasing lack of power to control what happens. What is happening now is Putin's futile attempt to control the shape of his failure as it circles the toilet bowl before being flushed from significance. In the future history of Russia, Putin will be remembered as Russia's biggest mistake.
This news of drones attacking Putin has been met with a stern response from the Kremlin, with Russian officials warning Ukraine of dire consequences. However, the irony of the situation cannot be ignored. It was not too long ago that the Kremlin was allegedly involved in a plot to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the beginning of the war.
However, the absurdity lies in the fact that the Kremlin would threaten Ukraine over an alleged assassination attempt when it had allegedly attempted to do the same not too long ago. The attempt to kill President Zelenskyy was reportedly made in 2019, just a few months after he took office. This was during a time when the conflict between the two countries was at its peak.
Essentially the Kremlin is stating we can destroy your cities, kill your elected officials, steal and kill your children but don’t you dare do the same to us. For the West to even contemplate allowing such nonsense is absurd to say the least.
To me it's an obvious, and very weak, attempt at a "false flag" event. The "explosion is barely worthy of the name, why are there two people climbing the dome on the left side at this exact time (carrying fire extinguishers in case something went wrong is my guess), why was somebody in position waiting to film it (the film wobbles too much to be CCTV, it's a hand held camera), why even after this "attack" is the victory parade still going ahead and are Moscow's air defences really that pathetic?
The last last may well be the case but the others convince me this is a fake attack.
@Peter Miles,