Russia believes that the United States was behind an attempt on the life of President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin yesterday. Footage has captured the moment that a drone hit the government building causing it to be set ablaze.
It is not believed that the Russian president was in the building at the time of the attack. Fuming officials have accused the US of drawing up targets for the two Ukrainian drones to strike.
According to the Mirror, the allegation was made by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskovc as he promised retaliation for the "terrorist" during a press briefing. The Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said "Russia likely staged this attack in an attempt to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilisation”.
It continued: "it is extremely unlikely that two drones could have penetrated multiple layers of air defence and detonated or been shot down just over the heart of the Kremlin in a way that provided spectacular imagery caught nicely on camera”.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strongly denied the claims, saying: "We don't attack Putin or Moscow, we fight on our own territory."
Kremlin officials have said that the drones were disabled before they could strike and there were no reports of damage or victims following the alleged incident.
No independent verification of the attack has been conducted and Russia has not presented any evidence to support its claims. Questions also arose as to why it took the Kremlin hours to report the incident and why videos of it also surfaced later in the day.
A video posted on social media shows the moment a drone exploded above the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, causing debris to fall onto the roof.
Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, said: "It certainly wasn't an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesn't sleep on the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin."
Officials say the attack was planned to disrupt Victory Day, which Russia celebrates in Red Square on May 9 to commemorate the USSR's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Peskov said the parade would go on as scheduled.
Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the claims could provide a pretext for Russia "to justify massive strikes on Ukrainian cities, on the civilian population, on infrastructure facilities."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. was "unable to confirm the authenticity" of Russia's claim.
Asked whether the U.S. believed Putin was a lawful target of any potential Ukrainian strike, Jean-Pierre said that since the start of the conflict, the U.S. was "not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its border."
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