Russia accuses Ukraine of attacking Kremlin, Zelenskyy's office responds

The Kremlin press service claims that on the night of May 3, an attempt was made to strike the Kremlin residence of the Russian president with unmanned aerial vehicles.

“Two unmanned aerial vehicles were targeting the Kremlin. Thanks to timely actions taken by the military and special services using radar systems, the drones were disabled. As a result of their fall and scattering of debris, there were no casualties or material damage,” the statement said.

The Kremlin emphasized that it views the attack as a planned terrorist action and an attempt on Putin's life.

“The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures wherever and whenever it deems necessary,” the Kremlin said.

Later, the Russian dictator's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the attack.

A video was also posted online showing smoke near the Kremlin. Another video shows the Kremlin dome on fire. Residents of Moscow wrote on social media that they allegedly heard explosions at night, saw sparks in the sky and people with flashlights near the Kremlin wall.

"We are not attacking either Putin or Moscow; we are fighting on our own territory, defending our villages and towns. We don't even have enough weapons to do that... That's why we didn't attack Putin; we'll leave it to the tribunal," Zelenskyy said.

The President of Ukraine explained the Russian accusations by the fact that Putin has no real victories to motivate Russian society to continue the war.

"Russia has no victories. It can no longer motivate its society, it can no longer just send its military to death, it can no longer motivate its state. It has no victories. The second army of the world has lost on the battlefield. They are unable to occupy Ukraine. They were repulsed by us. Now the Kremlin needs to somehow motivate these people to move forward. Except, of course, for the Wagner forces, the convicts, who are shot if they do not go forward but return back. This is their position and it is really happening, there are hundreds, thousands of facts, evidence, audio intercepts, prisoners who talk about all this, Wagner fighters themselves, and so on. It is clear that Putin is unable to "sell" his victories to his society. He has no more victories. They lost this war, they lost as a state, they lost historically, they lost the respect that they had or didn't have – it's not for me to judge today. And now he needs to do something drastic: assassination attempts, drones, or some geese that bombed them. Every day they will come up with certain steps," Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian leader emphasized that instead of inventing information manipulations, Russia should withdraw its troops from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine.

"Everything is easier to solve – no need to intimidate anyone, no need to use weapons. We need them to withdraw from our territory, which is purely ours and is recognized by absolutely everyone, even non-NATO and EU countries. On different continents, everyone recognizes the territorial integrity of Ukraine. And therefore, leaving our territory would be a much simpler solution than using various information and manipulations," Zelenskyy concluded.  

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's spokesman, Serhii Nykyforov, told Ukrainska Pravda that Ukraine has no information about nighttime attacks on the Kremlin and that the enemy is rising tensions.

“Ukraine is directing all available forces and means to liberate its own territories, not to attack others. The wording of the terrorist state is particularly surprising. A terrorist attack means apartment buildings in Dnipro and Uman destroyed by whole entrances, or a rocket fired at a queue at the train station in Kramatorsk, and many other tragedies. And what happened in Moscow is obviously an escalation of the situation before May 9. It is an expected response from our adversary,” he explained. 

In turn, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the President's Office, believes that Russia is preparing a large-scale terrorist attack.

“Regarding the drones over the Kremlin. Everything is predictable... Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist act. That is why it first detains a large group of alleged saboteurs in Crimea. And then it demonstrates 'drones over the Kremlin'” the adviser wrote. 

He emphasized that Ukraine is waging a defensive war and does not attack targets on Russian territory, as this “does not solve any military problem.” He noted that in this way Russia is trying to justify its attacks on civilians. Podolyak called all the attacks and incidents taking place in Russia the work of local resistance forces.

“We are watching with interest the growing number of incidents and excesses taking place in different parts of the Russian Federation. The appearance of unknown unmanned aerial vehicles at energy facilities or on the territory of the Kremlin can only indicate the underground work of local resistance forces. As you know, drones can be bought at any military store... Because the loss of power control over the country by the Putin clan is obvious. But, on the other hand, Russia has always talked about its total control over the air. In a word, something is happening in Russia, but definitely without Ukraine's drones over the Kremlin…” Podolyak commented. 

In turn, the mayor of Moscow said that on May 3, the city introduced a ban on the launch of aircraft, with the exception of UAVs used according to the decisions of public authorities.

“The decision was made to prevent the unauthorized use of UAVs, which could complicate the work of law enforcement agencies,” the explanation says.