The U.S has denied Russian claims that it masterminded an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, which Russia says was aimed at assassinating President Vladimir Putin.
A day after accusing Ukraine of carrying out the alleged attack, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov said it had been done with Washington’s support. On Thursday, May 4, 2023, Peskov stated that the US was “undoubtedly” behind the alleged attack, without providing evidence.
“Decisions on such attacks are not made in Kyiv, but in Washington,” Peskov said. U.S National Security Spokesman, John Kirby called it a “ludicrous claim”. Ukraine has said it had nothing to do with the alleged attack.
In his response, Kirby told U.S media, “Peskov is just lying there, pure and simple.”
“The United States has nothing to do with it. We don’t even know exactly what happened here, but I can assure you the United States had no role in it whatsoever.”
John Kirby
Kirby iterated that Washington did not encourage or enable Ukraine to strike outside its borders and did not endorse attacks on individual leaders.
Footage on social media showed smoke rising over the Kremlin early on Wednesday. A second video showed a small explosion above the site’s Senate building, while two men appear to clamber up the dome.
U.S intelligence officials are still trying to determine who was behind the drone incident and are exploring various possibilities, including a false flag operation by Russia or that a fringe group with sympathies for Ukraine could have been involved, according to a U.S. official.
However, the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, divulged that intelligence officials do not have any definitive answers yet. The official added that the Biden administration “certainly would not support the strike against Mr. Putin.”
Ukraine has said that the alleged attack was a false flag operation by Moscow in order to justify escalating the war.
On the other hand, many argue that Russia would have little interest in staging an attack that made the Kremlin look vulnerable.
Podolyak Claims Russia “Staged” The Alleged Drone Attack
Also on Thursday, Zelenskyy’s top advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, claimed that Russia had “staged” the alleged drone attack. He cited the delay in Russian state media reporting it and “simultaneous video from different angles” that appeared to show the aftermath of the alleged 2:30 a.m. attack.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also saw evidence of staging. “Russia likely staged this attack in an attempt to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization,” the think tank disclosed.
Given recent Russian moves to bolster security, it’s “extremely unlikely that two drones could have penetrated multiple layers of air defense and detonated or been shot down just over the heart of the Kremlin in a way that provided spectacular imagery caught nicely on camera,” the ISW stated.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a trip to the Netherlands on Thursday, May 4, 2023. In The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based, Zelenskyy urged the global community to hold Putin accountable and told the ICC judges that Russia’s leader “deserves to be sentenced for (his) criminal actions right here in the capital of the international law.”
Zelenskyy’s visit to the Netherlands came a day after he went to Finland, which doubled the size of NATO’s border with Russia when it joined the military alliance last month, largely out of its concerns about Moscow’s long-term ambitions.
The Ukrainian President also used his trip to press the Prime Ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands to send advanced warplanes so his country can achieve “justice on the battlefield.”
Zelenskyy has successfully assembled significant Western military and political support for Ukraine’s defense since the war began in February 2022.
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