By Ben Kerrigan-
Moscow has accused Kyiv of attempting a drone strike on the Kremlin with the aim of killing the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that two drones had been used in the alleged attack, but that they had been disabled by Russian defences.
Footage has circulated on social media of a small smoke cloud rising over the Kremlin in Moscow in the early hours of Wednesday.
In a statement published on its website, the Kremlin stated it considered the attack a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the president of the Russian Federation.
“Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the vehicles were put out of action,” the Kremlin press service said.
It said that debris from the drone “fell on the territory of the Kremlin”.
“There were no victims and material damage,” the Kremlin said, adding that “the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit”.
“The president was not hurt as a result of the terrorist attack,” the Kremlin said.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the alleged strike. Peskov added that Putin would spend the day at the Novo-Ogoryovo state residence outside Moscow.
One unverified video circulating on social media showed what appeared to be smoke coming out of the Kremlin overnight. A second appeared to show the moment one of the drones hits the rooftop buildings inside the walled Kremlin complex after the purported incident the Kremlin.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymr Zelenskiy, denied Ukraine’s involvement in the reported attack, saying that it was the result of “local resistance forces”.
“Emergence of unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles at energy facilities or on Kremlin’s territory can only indicate the guerilla activities of local resistance forces. As you know, drones can be bought at any military store,” Podolyak said in a tweet.
“Something is happening in RF [Russia], but definitely without Ukraine’s drones over the Kremlin,” Podolyak added.
Russia has sustained a number of embarrassing drone attacks on its military bases and fuel depots over the course of the fighting, including in occupied Crimea. In a separate incident on Wednesday, a major fire at a fuel depot in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region broke out as a result of what local authorities said was a drone attack on the facility. 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.
Wednesday’s alleged drone on the Kremlin came days before the 9 May Victory Day parade that marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The Victory Day parade on Red Square, which is located next to the Kremlin, is a highly symbolic annual demonstration of military might in Russia.
Before Wednesday’s alleged drone attack, several regions in the country scrapped their parades amid fears over Ukrainian strikes. The Kremlin said the parade would go ahead in Moscow despite Wednesday’s incident.
The Russian president held a meeting with Gleb Nikitin, governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, outside Moscow today.