'We fight on our territory': Zelensky denies claims of Putin ...
‘We fight on our territory’: Zelensky denies claims of Putin assassination attempt
Updated May 4, 2023 — 12.07pm
Moscow: Russia has accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones on Wednesday in a failed bid to kill President Vladimir Putin and threatened to retaliate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had nothing to do with the reported incident, the most dramatic accusation Moscow has levelled against its neighbour since invading more than 14 months ago.
The Kremlin claimed a Ukrainian drone attack targeted Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin but offered no evidence.Credit: AP, Russian state media
“We don’t attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory,” Zelensky told a press conference during a visit to Finland, of the war against Russian occupiers.
A senior aide to 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 Moscow announcement, Ukraine reported alerts for air strikes over the capital Kyiv and other cities.
Russia claimed two drones had been used in the early hours of Wednesday in the alleged attack on Putin’s residence in the walled Kremlin citadel, but that they had been disabled by electronic defences.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denies his country had anything to do with the Kremlin drones.Credit: AP
“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.
Putin himself was safe. The RIA news agency said he had not been in the Kremlin at the time, and was working at his Novo Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.
“The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit,” the Kremlin added – a comment that suggested that Moscow might use the alleged incident to justify a further escalation in its war with Ukraine.
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”.
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Two of numerous videos published on Russian social media channels show two objects flying on the same trajectory towards one of the highest points in the 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.
Reuters checks on time and location indicate the videos could be authentic, though some Western analysts said it was possible that 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”.
“Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not resolve any military tasks,” Podolyak said.
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American intelligence officials were also looking into the Russian claims, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Washington, said he had seen the reports but that he was unable to validate the claims.
“We simply don’t know,” he said, before adding: “I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt. So let’s see.
“We’ll see what the facts are and it’s really hard to comment or speculate on this without really knowing what the facts are.”
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The first video was posted in the early hours of Wednesday on a group for residents of a neighbourhood that faces the Kremlin across the Moskva River. It was picked up by Russian media, including the Telegram channel of the military news outlet, Zvezda.
Victory Day is a major public holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, 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.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said earlier on Wednesday that 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 kilometres 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.
Reuters with AP
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