A drone was used to try and kill Vladimir Putin, and the Kremlin has vowed revenge
Russia has accused Ukraine of a failed attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin, and vowed revenge.
Kyiv denied any role in the alleged strike.
Video appears to show a flying object nearing the Kremlin’s domed spires before exploding.
The Kremlin said Russia reserved the right to retaliate, and Russian hardliners demanded swift retribution against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a statement, the Kremlin said, “two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at 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.”
It said fragments of drones were scattered in the Kremlin grounds but there were no injuries or damage. Putin himself was safe.
At a news conference with leaders of Scandinavian nations in Helsinki, Ukrainian President Zelensky denied his country tried to killed the Russian president and suggested going after Putin was the job of an international court.
“You know I can repeat this message and I think it will at least, will be understandable for everybody,” Zelensky said. “We don’t attack Putin, or Moscow.
“We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities. We don’t have, you know, enough weapons for this.
“That’s why we don’t use it anywhere. For us, that is the deficit. We can’t spend it. And we didn’t attack Putin. We leave it to tribunal.”
The purported strike is not the first time Moscow accused Kyiv of launching drones into territory it controls since Russian forces invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.
Last week, the Russian-installed mayor of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea blamed a fire at a fuel depot on a Ukrainian drone strike.
Smoke was seen billowing from another fire in the Crimean port of Krasnodar, which Russian authorities said was hit by a Ukrainian drone.
Ukraine typically declines to claim responsibility for attacks on Russia or Russian-annexed Crimea, though Kyiv officials have frequently celebrated such attacks with cryptic or mocking remarks.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he cannot validate Russia’s accusation that Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin in a drone attack, and added he would take anything coming from the Kremlin with a “large shaker of salt.”
