The Kremlin has revealed it intercepted a pair of drones beleived to have been sent by Ukraine to strike President Vladimir Putin at his official residence early wednesday.
“Last night, the Kyiv regime made an attempt to strike with unmanned aerial vehicles on the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying in a statement.
The alleged drone strike attempt comes as Russia prepares to celebrate the Soviet victory in World War II usually on May 9 with a massive military parade on Red Square.
Kremlin called Wednesday’s incident “a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the President of the Russian Federation, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned.”
“The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit,” the statement continued.
According to the Kremlin, the drones were shot down by the Russian military and special services. Putin, who was not in the building at the time, was unharmed and the incident did not affect his work schedule, it added.
“From the [drone] fragments’ fall and the scattering across the territory of the Kremlin, no one was injured, and there was no material damage,” the statement said.
Reacting to the Kremlin claims, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called for the Ukrainian government to be destroyed.
“We will demand the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime,” Volodin, a close Putin ally, said, adding that it was now impossible to negotiate with what he called “the Zelensky regime.”
Mikhail Sheremet, a Duma deputy from Russia-annexed Crimea, called for a reprisal attack on Zelensky’s Kyiv residence.
Security analyst Mark Galeotti of the London-based consultancy Mayak Intelligence tweeted that even if Ukraine had targeted Putin in a drone strike, its chances of success were minimal given the high level of security around the Kremlin.
He also argued that calling the incident an assassination attempt was simply playing to the Kremlin’s talking points.
“[Putin] notoriously rarely goes to the Kremlin, let alone stays there overnight, Galeotti said, adding that while “not quite a bunker,” Putin’s apartment was “quite well protected.”
