Explosions rocked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in the early hours of Thursday, a day after Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin.
“Air defences are working in the Kyiv region,” the regional military administration said on Telegram. Reuters eyewitnesses in the city said there had been at least one loud blast.
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported explosions in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia. Yuri Malashko, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram that anti-aircraft defences were at work.
Local media also reported blasts in the Black Sea port of Odesa. Air alerts have been sounded in most of the eastern half of the country, according to an official government map.
Ukrainian air defences later said they downed 18 out of 24 kamikaze drones that Russia launched in the pre-dawn attack.
In a statement, Kyiv city administration said that all missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital for the third time in four days, have been destroyed.
“The Russians have attacked Kyiv using Shahed loitering munitions and missiles, likely the ballistic type,” the administration said.
Out of 15 Shahed kamikaze drones fired at the Black Sea coastal city of Odesa, air defences destroyed 12, while three struck a university compound. There were no casualties, the Ukrainian southern military command said. The Ukrainian claims could not be verified.
The latest wave of attempted strikes came a day after Russia accused Ukraine of a failed attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin.
Russia claimed that 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,” a Kremlin statement said.
“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.”
Fragments of drones were scattered in the Kremlin grounds but there were no injuries or damage, it said.
The RIA news agency said Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time, and was working on Wednesday at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had nothing to do with the reported incident.
“We don’t attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory,” he told a press conference during a visit to Finland, of the war against Russian occupiers.
A senior aide to Mr Zelensky called the accusation a sign that the Kremlin was planning a major new attack on Ukraine, at a time of potential turning point in the war as Kyiv prepares to mount a long-anticipated counteroffensive.
Shortly after the Kremlin announcement, Ukraine reported alerts for air strikes over the capital Kyiv and other cities.
Two videos published on Russian social media channels show two objects flying on the same trajectory toward one of the highest points in the Kremlin complex, the dome of the Senate. The first seemed to be destroyed with little more than a puff of smoke, the second appeared to leave blazing wreckage on the dome.
Some Western analysts said it was possible Russia might have staged the incident to pin the blame on Kyiv and justify some kind of crushing response.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the drone accusation, along with an announcement that Russia had caught suspected saboteurs in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea region, “clearly indicates the preparation of a large scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days”.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said the incident “leaves us no option but to physically eliminate Zelensky and his clique”.
In Washington, the White House said it was aware of reports that Russia had accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones to try to kill Putin but could not authenticate the allegations.
Meanwhile, Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass reported a drone attack on an oil refinery in southern Russia on Thursday.
Tass said the incident occurred at the Ilsky refinery near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region. It cited a source as saying a fuel reservoir was on fire but gave no details.
A day earlier, a Russian fuel depot caught fire near a bridge linking with the occupied Crimea peninsula.
“A second turbulent night for our emergency services,” Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev wrote on Telegram. He said tanks with oil products were on fire at the Ilsky refinery but did not give a reason.
There were no casualties, he said, citing preliminary data.
Ukraine rarely claims responsibility for what Moscow says are frequent drone strikes against infrastructure and military targets, particularly in regions close to Russia.
Moscow blamed Ukraine for an attack on April 29 that set fire to an oil depot in Sevastopol. Kyiv’s military says undermining Russia’s logistics is part of preparations for a long-expected counteroffensive.
