Russia says Ukraine tried to kill Putin with night-time drone attack on Kremlin
May 3 (Reuters) - Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in an attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin - the most serious allegation that Moscow has levelled at Kyiv in more than 14 months of war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promptly denied any Ukrainian involvement, telling a press conference in Helsinki: "We don't attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory."
A senior Ukrainian presidential official said the incident instead suggested Moscow was preparing a major "terrorist provocation".
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had not been able to validate the reported attack, and that Russian assertions should be taken with a "very large shaker of salt".
Russia reserved the right to retaliate, Putin's office said, and Russian hardliners demanded swift retribution against Zelenskiy himself.
"Two uncrewed 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," the presidency said in a statement.
"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 ...
"The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit."
VIDEOS SHOW EXPLOSION OVER KREMLIN
Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, posted a video showing a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building overlooking Red Square - site of next Tuesday's Victory Day parade - and exploding in an intense burst of light just before reaching it.Two similar videos posted on social media showed two objects flying on the same trajectory towards the dome, with the clock on the Kremlin's Spassky Tower reading 2:27 and 2:43. The first seemed to be destroyed with little more than a puff of smoke, the second appeared to leave blazing wreckage on the dome.
Reuters checks on the time and location indicated that the videos could be authentic, although it was not clear how Ukraine, if it were involved, could seriously have expected to kill Putin with a drone strike on the Kremlin - a huge, historic walled citadel in the heart of Moscow.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to Reuters: "In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both 'reports about an attack on the Kremlin' and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea ... clearly indicate the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days."
A still image taken from video shows a flying object exploding in an intense burst of light near the dome of the Kremlin Senate building during the alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Russia, in this image taken from video obtained by Reuters May 3, 2023. Ostorozhno Novosti/Handout via REUTERS
The powerful speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, demanded the use of "weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime".
And former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said the incident "leaves us no option but to physically eliminate Zelenskiy and his clique".
PUTIN 'RARELY GOES TO KREMLIN'
But a British expert on Russia, Mark Galeotti, said it was unlikely that the alleged attack had targeted Putin, who "notoriously rarely goes to the Kremlin, let alone stays there overnight"."If we presume it was a Ukrainian attack," Galeotti tweeted, "consider it a performative strike, a demonstration of capability and a declaration of intent: 'don't think Moscow is safe.'"
The presidential administration said fragments of the drones had been scattered on the territory of the Kremlin complex but there were no casualties or material damage.
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.
Victory Day is a major public holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, and a chance for Putin to rally Russians behind what he calls his "special military operation" in Ukraine.
Russia marks the occasion with a huge military parade on Red Square, for which seating has already been erected.
The state news agency TASS said the parade - for which the Kremlin last week announced tighter security - would still go ahead.
Before the drone attack was announced, some 10 hours after the event, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the city had introduced an immediate ban on unauthorised drone flights.
Russia has accused Ukraine of numerous cross-border attacks since the start of the war, including strikes in December on an air base deep inside Russian territory that houses strategic bomber planes equipped to carry nuclear weapons. In February, a drone crashed in Kolomna, about 110 km (70 miles) from the centre of Moscow.
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.
Kremlin drone: Zelensky denies Ukraine attacked Putin or Moscow
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied his country carried out an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, which Russia says was an attempt on President Vladimir Putin's life.
"We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities," he said, speaking on a visit to Finland.
The Russian president's office said defences downed two drones overnight.
It threatened to retaliate when and where it considered necessary.
Unverified footage circulating online shows smoke rising over the Kremlin - a large government complex in central Moscow - early on Wednesday. A second video shows a small explosion above the site's Senate building, while two men appear to clamber up the dome.
The Russian presidency said Ukraine had attempted a strike on Mr Putin's residence in the Kremlin and described it as "a planned terrorist act and an assassination attempt on the president".
Officials said two drones targeting the complex had been disabled using electronic radar assets, adding that President Putin had not been in the complex at the time of the alleged attack.
But Ukraine has said the Russian accusations are merely a pretext for massive attacks on its territory and the US says it is treating the Russian claims with a lot of caution.
Mr Putin appears to be one of the most closely-guarded leaders in the world. At Putin events in Moscow attended by BBC journalists, extremely tight security has been in place, including extensive checks and long convoys of vehicles with airspace closed and traffic halted.
However if what the Kremlin is saying is true, it will raise questions about how well protected the president really is.
There will also be scrutiny over the effectiveness of Russian air defences. In recent months, anti-aircraft systems have been spotted on Moscow rooftops in the vicinity of key buildings.
They have been placed there because the Kremlin is concerned that Ukraine, or those sympathetic to Ukraine, may attempt to carry out aerial attacks on high-value targets.
Whatever actually happened on Wednesday morning, the question now is how Russia will respond. Some officials have already called for tough action. Russian generals have warned many times of harsh responses to any strikes on Russian territory.
But it is unclear whether Russia has the capacity to carry out meaningful retaliatory strikes, or whether this incident will lead to any significant escalation on the battlefield inside Ukraine.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser told the BBC the incident indicated Russia could be "preparing a large-scale terrorist provocation" in Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podolyak said attacking Moscow made no sense for Ukraine but would help Russia justify its own attacks on civilian targets.
On Wednesday Russian strikes on Ukraine's southern Kherson region killed 21 people. Mr Zelensky said the shelling had hit "a railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket and a gas station". The victims included supermarket customers and employees of an energy company who were performing repairs, officials said.
Mr Podolyak added that any drones flying over locations in Russia were down to "guerrilla activities of local resistance forces".
"Something is happening in RF [Russian Federation], but definitely without Ukraine's drones over the Kremlin," Mr Podolyak said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he could not validate Russia's accusation that Ukraine had tried to kill Mr Putin, but said he would take anything the Russian presidency said with a "very large shaker of salt".
Mick Mulroy, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence and CIA officer, told the BBC that if reports of the incident were accurate, it was "unlikely" to be an assassination attempt as Ukraine tracks President Putin's movements closely and he was not in Moscow at the time.
"This may have been to show the Russian people that they can be hit anywhere and that the war they started in Ukraine may eventually come home to Russia, even the capital," he said.
Alternatively, if the reports were not accurate, "Russia may be fabricating this to use as a pretext to target President Zelensky - something they have tried to in the past", Mr Mulroy said.
Russia also noted the alleged drone incident had come shortly before Russia's 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow, which foreign dignitaries were expected to attend.
The parade will go ahead as planned, Russian officials said.
Moscow's mayor on Wednesday announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over the city.
Several Russian cities had already announced they would scale back this year's Victory Day celebrations.
Russian authorities have cited security reasons and attacks from pro-Ukrainian forces for the changes. Explosions and fires have occurred in Russia in recent weeks.
