- US, Kyiv cannot ‘disown’ drone attack on Kremlin
- Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to assassinate Putin
- White House, Kyiv deny Russian accusations of involvement
- Russian drones target Kyiv, other cities
- Zelenskiy visits The Hague, says Putin must face justice
KYIV (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday that the United States was behind an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin aiming to kill President Vladimir Putin, and air raid sirens sounded again in Kyiv as darkness fell following attacks the previous night.
Reuters witnesses heard gunfire and repeated heavier explosions near the centre of Kyiv. Residents who made their way to air raid shelters told Reuters they saw drones in the air.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in The Hague after visiting the International Court of Justice (ICC), said Putin must be brought to justice over the war and that Kyiv would work to create a new tribunal for this purpose.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, without providing evidence, said Ukraine had acted on U.S. orders with the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin citadel in the early hours of Wednesday.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Peskov was “just lying” and that the United States neither encouraged nor enabled Ukraine to strike outside its borders.
Kyiv has also denied involvement in the incident, which followed a string of blasts over the past week targeting freight trains and oil depots in western Russia and Russian-controlled Crimea. Moscow has blamed Ukraine for those attacks too.
“Attempts to disown this (attack on the Kremlin), both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous. We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington,” Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said an urgent investigation was under way and that any response would be carefully considered and balanced.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the alleged drone attack “must not go unanswered” and showed Kyiv had no desire to end the 15-month old war at the negotiating table.
Russia has increasingly accused the United States of being a direct participant in the war, intent on inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Moscow. Washington denies this, saying it is arming Kyiv to defend itself and retake illegally seized land