Russia has accused Ukraine of deploying two drones to assassinate President Vladimir Putin at his residence in the Kremlin earlier this week. Two attempted drone strikes took place on the Kremlin. Dramatic footage of the incident soon went viral on social media. The footage shows how two drones flew towards the domed roof of the Kremlin before exploding. It is not clear whether the drones were shot down by Russian air defences or they exploded as planned.
Although Russia has not released any evidence to show that Ukraine was behind the explosions, it claimed that the attack was foiled by electronic warfare systems. Russian government further accused Ukraine of enjoying the backing of the United States in orchestrating drone strikes on the seat of the Russian presidency.
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President Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri S Peskov, emphasised the charges in his recent presser. “We know well that the decisions about such actions and such terrorist acts are made not in Kyiv, but in Washington. Kyiv then does what it’s told,” Peskov said.
US government, on its part, has vehemently denied involvement in the drone attacks on the Kremlin.
John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesperson, dismissed the accusations levelled by Kremlin. “One thing I can tell you for certain is that the US did not have any involvement with this incident, contrary to Peskov’s lies, and that’s just what they are, lies. We haven’t come to any conclusions one way or another. We’re doing the best we can to try to find out what happened,” Kirby told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has called on all parties to avoid escalating the situation.
Reports suggest that the drones that were used in the attack could have been launched from inside Russia as they had managed to evade an extensive number of defences around Moscow.
It is worth noting that this is not the first drone attack that has occurred inside Russian territory. Several suspected drone attacks have happened in territories under Russian control in recent months.
A few days ago, an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia was targeted in a mysterious drone attack.
The drone attacks on the Kremlin have come against the backdrop of the looming Ukrainian counteroffensive. It remains to be seen how the developments shape the course of the situation in Ukraine.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
