The Kremlin accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to assassinate Russian president Vladimir Putin in a late-night drone attack on his residence and vowed to retaliate.
Russia’s military and secret services “acted in a timely fashion” to shoot down two Ukrainian drones that attacked the Kremlin overnight, according to a statement by Putin’s press service.
The Kremlin said the alleged strike, in which Putin was unharmed, was “a planned terrorist attack and attempted assassination of the president of Russia” ahead of the planned Victory Day parade on adjoining Red Square next Tuesday.
“Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit,” the Kremlin said.
Ukrainian officials declined to comment. “We do not have such information,” said a spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces, describing the Russian claims as “political statements”.
If confirmed, the apparent attempt on Putin’s life would be one of Kyiv’s most daring strikes since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and a glaring indication of how Moscow’s war effort is continuing to sputter.
Russia initially hoped to capture Kyiv in a blitzkrieg in a matter of days, but has found itself bogged down in grinding attritional warfare, suffered a series of humiliating battlefield defeats and faced increasingly audacious Ukrainian strikes behind enemy lines.
In recent months, Ukraine has carried out a series of drone attacks on fuel depots and military bases, some of which were several hundred kilometres into Russian territory.
Earlier this year, pictures emerged of two Pantsir air defence systems in the Kremlin, as well as others at the defence ministry’s nearby headquarters in Moscow. Russia also installed Pantsirs at Putin’s official home outside Moscow, a bucolic residence in northern Russia, and a ski resort near the Black Sea where he spends time, according to Russian independent media.
Though it was not immediately clear whether the alleged attack happened, pro-Kremlin accounts on social media posted footage of what appeared to be a drone flying low over Putin’s residence, then exploding in a ball of flames. Other videos showed what appeared to be anti-aircraft fire over the Kremlin’s golden-domed medieval churches late at night.
Putin worked according to schedule on Wednesday. No casualties or damage were sustained during the alleged attack, the Kremlin said.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow defence think-tank, said the drones could probably have been purchased commercially and outfitted with explosives.
A Ukrainian group working underground in Russia could have launched the drones from somewhere near Moscow, Pukhov said, thus allowing them to evade detection over the 800km distance from the front lines. The small number of drones used probably indicated a partisan effort rather than a broader attack, he added.
Ukraine also has the capability to fly a drone all the way to Moscow, according to a Ukrainian engineer who builds drones to military specs.
“It’s not difficult to build a drone with an 800km range, aiming it is the difficult task,” he said.
As for the apparent failure of Russian air defences to stop the drones, he added: “During the day anti-aircraft systems use optical sights, so hitting a drone is easy, but at night they are not easy targets.”
Additional reporting by Roman Olearchyk in Kyiv
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