Russia claims Putin survived assassination attempt by Ukraine

UKRAINE ESCALATES SABOTAGE OPERATIONS AHEAD OF COUNTEROFFENSIVE

Russia did not provide any evidence to support the claim the drones were part of an assassination attempt.

(AP Photo, File)

“We are looking into the report but aren’t able to confirm it or validate its authenticity,” a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner.

A video of one of the drones, posted on social media, shows one of the drones exploding above the roof of one of the Kremlin’s buildings. It appears to have detonated upon hitting a flagpole mounted on the building.

“The Russian president was not harmed as a result of the terrorist attack. His schedule has not changed and continues as usual,” the Russian presidential press service said.

“The Kiev regime carried out an attempt to deliver a strike by unmanned aerial vehicles on the Kremlin residence of the Russian president,” it added. “Two unmanned aerial vehicles targeted the Kremlin.”

The Kremlin credits the use of electronic warfare systems with downing the drones, though it appears to imply that the drones exploded.

“As a result of timely actions taken by military and special services using electronic warfare systems, the drones were disabled. Their fall and the fragments scattered around on the territory of the Kremlin caused no casualties or material damage,” it said.

Putin was in Novo-Ogaryovo, a presidential estate outside of Moscow, with the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region at the time of the attack, according to Tass.

Meanwhile, Ukraine denied any involvement in the attack, accusing Russia of playing a “trick.”

“We do not have information on so-called night attacks on Kremlin,” Serhiy Nykyforov, spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told CNN on Wednesday. “As President Zelensky has stated numerous times before, Ukraine uses all means at its disposal to free its own territory, not to attack others.”

“A terror attack has destroyed blocks of residential buildings in Dnipro and Uman or a missile at a line at Kramatorsk rail station and many other tragedies,” he added. “What happened in Moscow is obviously about escalating the mood on the eve of May 9.”

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak echoed Nykyforov’s statements, saying the attack would be pointless and that it shows an effort by Russia to prepare large-scale provocations that would be blamed on Ukraine.

“It definitely does not change anything at a battlefield,” Podolyak said. “This would allow Russia to justify mass strikes on Ukrainian cities, civilians, and infrastructure facilities. Why would we need that? What’s the logic?”

“I think it is absolutely obvious that simultaneous ‘announcement of an attack on Kremlin’ and detention of so-called Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea on a different charge clearly signals Russia is preparing a large-scale terrorist provocation in the coming days,” he said.

Podolyak also said the alleged provocation was meant to distract from Ukraine’s offensive and possibly provide a “pretext for a large-scale terrorist attack in Ukraine.”

One video posted on social media showed smoke rising above the Kremlin in the explosion’s aftermath.

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Another video appears to show the roof of one of the Kremlin’s buildings partially on fire or the burning wreckage of one of the drones lying on top of it.

The mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, announced a ban on all nonstate-operated drones in the wake of the incident, Tass reported. The Russian government stressed that the incident would not interfere with its annual May 9 Victory Day parade, which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany.