Russia claims Ukraine conducted drone attack on Kremlin, Putin unhurt

The aircraft were downed using electronic warfare measures and caused no casualties or damage, it said in a statement. Moscow considers the incident an act of terrorism.

The incident occurred late on Tuesday night, and both unmanned aircraft fell on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow, according to the president’s office. His schedule was not affected.

“We consider this a preplanned terrorist action and an attempt against the Russian president,” it added.

Russia reserves the right to retaliate in a manner, place and time of its choosing, the statement noted.

Putin was not harmed in an overnight drone strike on the Kremlin, his press service announced on Wednesday.

“As a result of this terrorist act, the President of the Russian Federation was not injured. His work schedule has not changed, it continues as usual,” the message said.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that the president was absent from the Kremlin when the drones were downed. He is currently at the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow Region, which is located to the west of the capital.

The Russian capital’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin has also announced that Moscow’s authorities have banned the unauthorized use of drones.

Writing on Telegram, Sobyanin said that the flying of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Russian capital would be prohibited starting from today, with an exception being made for drones used with the authorities’ approval.

“This decision was taken in order to prevent unauthorized use of UAVs, which could hamper the work of law enforcement agencies,” the mayor explained, reminding his audience that anyone who breaks this rule could face administrative and criminal liability.

Ukraine claims it has no knowledge of an alleged attempted drone strike on the Kremlin in Moscow.

President Volodymyr Zelensky denied attacking the Kremlin or President Putin.

“We don’t attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory,” Zelensky told a news conference in Helsinki.

Senior Ukrainian presidential official Mykhailo Podolyak told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv had nothing to do with the alleged incident.

In a tweet, he suggested Russia’s claims were a false flag, saying “Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack”.

Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian minister of internal affairs, stated that Russian partisans were likely to have been behind the alleged attack.

“Information appeared that the drone on the Kremlin was launched by Russian partisans from Moscow region,” he wrote on Twitter.

“We do not have information on so called night attacks on Kremlin,” the spokesperson for Zelensky, Serhiy Nykyforov, told CNN on Wednesday, when asked about Moscow’s claim that it had foiled a Kyiv-ordered drone strike in the Russian capital.

“As President Zelensky has stated numerous times before, Ukraine uses all means at its disposal to free its own territory, not to attack others,” Nykyforov added.

President Zelensky’s spokesperson Luliia Mendel has also called the Kremlin’s allegation of an attempted drone attack on the Kremlin “another threat” from Russia.

“Another threat from the Kremlin. At the beginning of the war, it made several attempts to assassinate Volodymyr Zelensky and kept silent about this,” she wrote on Twitter.

“How much trust do we have in Russian information about alleged Ukrainian drone attacks on the Kremlin? After years of lies and provocations?” she asked.